Monster Hunter Survival
by Kuromizu Rekka
Summary: A Convoy to a New Land and their adventures from the highlands to Loc Lac City and all the way to moga before a long sea journey to a new land
1. Start of A Journey

Chapter 1: A Long Journey

****The sun shone brightly and cast its bright rays down to almost every corner of the large rocky land, more commonly known as the Highlands by the inhabitants of Mountiduman. Mountiduman was a small guild run outpost nestled at the bottom of the Highland cliffs bordering the Mountain Streams region not that there was much difference, Where as the highlands was higher up an consisted of more rocky plateaus with towering cliffs and the summits covered with deteriorating forest, weathered rocks and plenty of waterfalls falling through the endless sea of clouds that surround the summits. While on the other hand the Mountain Stream area had many scattered mountains which seem to sprout out from the rich green valley with a large beautiful mountain stream streaking a path through the landscape fuelled by waterfalls from the Highlands, which unlike the highlands it made the Mountain stream abundant in resources.

Usually Mountiduman was a quiet outpost, consisting of a guild hall, blacksmith and a local shop, there were a few houses for a few hunters and Guild members, but really that was all that there was besides the large wooden fence and lookout towers that surrounded the outpost. Today however was not the norm as the town seemed to be bustling with people running in and out of the outpost carrying boxes and what not, all the commotion was due to the large convoy parking not ten meters away from the gate, where a large man stood barking orders from a top the first wagon to all those around, only stopping when another man clad in standard guild Guardian U armour called to him from bellow, "Excuse me Captain Ibiki" came the voice of a man who seemed to hold the utmost respect for the one he was addressing.

Only after surveying the happenings of his convoy with his only good eye, did the captain finally turn to his patiently waiting subordinate "Report Lieutenant Morgan!" came the rough voice of the aging Captain. With a quick salute the lieutenant began with his report, "Sir, the second Lieutenant and I have completed the checks on the inventory and all is accounted for and tied down, Sir". After eyeing his first lieutenant for a few more seconds the now forty year old captain rubbed his eye patch with the palm of his hand out of habit and proceeded to look around the convoy searching for something, something that he did not find. Turning back to his subordinate, he spoke with mild irritation, "Are those blasted hunters here yet lieutenant?"

The Lieutenant turned his head to the side quickly, hoping to see the sergeant he had sent to fetch the hunters, but alas there was no sign of her, turning back to the Captain who in the progress was busy checking his own guild Guardian U armour, "Sir, no sir. I have sent Sergeant Mel to fetch them sir." Atop the wagon the large captain grabbed his bald head with his large hairy hands and seemed to almost be trying to crush his own skull with them.

In the distance Capt. Ibiki could see 2nd Lieutenant Colt walking towards him and 1st Lieutenant Morgan, while he was heading towards them he straightened out his Guardian U armour, not much was different between his, Morgan and Ibiki, just the stripes and stars on the shoulder pads, where as Capt. Ibiki had three silver stars with two red stripes behind it, Lt. Morgan had only two stars and two red strips, Lt. Colt only had one star over two red lines. As the Second Lieutenant got near the wagon he stopped and saluted the captain, "You may report Lieutenant!" "Sir, The Men are ready and awaiting your orders, also Sergeant Mel has reported that the hunters are on their way and should be arriving in the next ten minutes, SIR!" the lieutenant reported with a stern voice while his long silver hair whip around behind him as the wind picked up a bit. "Well done Lieutenant, line the men up, I'm on my way."

"Sir, yes Sir" replied Lt. Colt before turning on his heel and marching back to where the troops were standing, giving him a minute to line up the troops, the captain then jumped from the wagon landing perfectly on the ground before turning and marching towards the middle of the convoy to address the troops, with Lt. Morgan only two steps behind him. Coming to a stop at the centre wagon he turned and climbed up the wagon. The ladder led to the top of the wagon where it housed the Ballista weapon on its roof and Ballista's ammo inside, plus most various ammo rounds for the five gunners and one Gun-lancer in the platoon.

Once on top the wagon Capt. Ibiki eyed the eighteen troops holding the rank of Private that stood before him, twelve of those male and six female all wearing basic Guardian Armour with only one yellow star inside a red rectangle on each shoulder pad signifying their rank as Privates in the Guild. Once he was done scanning the troops he put his hands behind his back and spoke with a loud voice "As I'm sure most of you are wondering why you are here, well the answer is that the Guild elders have ordered me to assemble a platoon. The reason for this platoon is to investigate the loss of communication with an expedition team that travelled to the New Land; communication was lost with the team presumable a month after they arrived as it is a two month journey and so far only one messenger ship has returned, the rest have disappeared without a trace, so the guild has decided to send us the guild knights to investigate and report." Pausing in his speech to let his words sink in, he watched as some seemed to become excited while a few seemed to get nervous which would not do.

Deciding he had given the troops long enough, he continued "Now the plan will be as follows, from here we will set out in a South Westerly direction towards Loc Lac city where we shall restock and pick up an elder scrivener by the name of Dr. Dracenstein and his team, plus I have requested for a healer team to be there for the rest of journey. Now once we leave Loc Lac we will head to Fort Flame Dune by way of desert ships, once there we will be joining with another platoon, after we have done final preparations we will set out for Jumbo Village where we will board a guild vessel which has been special modified as to help with any large sea monsters, the last stop in our journey before we head to the New Land will be Moga Village where we will collect a High Rank hunting party that the guild elders recommended for this trip" stopping to catch a bit of his breath and taking in the looks on his troops faces, especially when he mentioned the famous doctor's name.

Looking at the troops who still stood like statues as he talked, well except for the facial expressions, not really wanting to say what he was about to say, "Now as I'm sure some of you know the guild did request any volunteer hunting parties here in Mountiduman to join us and help with any beasts we may encounter. So far we only have two teams one consisting of HR 5 hunters and another team with HR4 and HR2. This is the only time that the Guild will allow such low ranked hunters on an expedition like this and while I know a few of you just like me really don't see why we need them, this is the Guild Elders' orders and so we must continue." Seeing the looks of agreement that were sent his way, he knew eighty percent of the troops where sharing the same feelings as him and lucky the hunters hadn't arrived yet or there would have been more trouble than was needed.

Taking a moment to think about what formation he was going to use, he let the troops stand while he though, after a minute or two he was finally done deciding, "Okay now listen up, the formation will be as such, 1st Lt. Morgan you will take four troops of your choosing to the rear wagon, except Privates Jacob, Smith, Riley and Brandon as I will place them, That said I want Gunner Pvt. Jacob on the roof of the rear wagon as rear look out." Stopping so that Lt. Morgan could select the men of his choosing, and move to the rear wagon, while Lt. Morgan selected the four troops Pvt. Jacob picked up his Maelstrom Light Gun and pack from the ground in front of him, he then headed to the last wagon to take up position.

Once Lt. Morgan had left with the four troops of his choice, Capt. Ibiki turned to the remaining troops and continued, "Next I want Lieutenant Colt to select six men to cover the four middle wagons, while I want Pvt. Smith manning the Ballista." Once again stopping to let the Lieutenant select the troops he wanted while Pvt. Smith climbed up next to him and stood next to the Ballista, only once Lt. Colt had positioned his men where he thought they would be of best use, did the captain continue, "now finally I want the last men next to the front wagon by me and I want Riley and Brandon to scout the front, no go and await my orders once I get to the front." The rest of the troops left to the front where they stood together waiting for the captain.

The Captain smiled before turning to Sergeant Mel "You will be at the second last wagon as the Felynes seemed to have taking a liking to you and request that you be there protector, is this satisfactory?" even though it was phrased as a question Sgt. Mel knew there was no other answer than "Sir, yes Sir!" And with that she watched the captain jump down from the wagon and turn an leave, she watched him for a little longer as his large muscular body walked away from her, then once he was near the front wagon she turned and headed for the mobile kitchen, sighing, she really was not in the mood, while she did not mind the Felynes at all its just there was the single one in the group that seemed to love getting a rise out of people, him being the black with whites spots known as Smoke.

While the Captain was placing his men, his first Lieutenant walked up next to him, "Sir, the hunters are here Sir" was the deep voice of Lt. Morgan. Without even turning the captain spoke in a mild irritated voice dripping with sarcasm, "So nice of you all to grace us with your Great tardy presence!" the hunters seemed to be caught off guard for just a moment before the largest one of them all clad in Gravios Armour, fired back a response, "I wouldn't talk like that to us you old guild geezer, you needs us since it's obvious that a simple velociprey would make you his bi...;" The large hunter's voice seemed to have disappeared when out of nowhere a blade seemed to pierce his neck, not enough to do any real damage, but enough to draw blood.

The muscled hunter cautiously looked down at the weapon to find the tip of a red gunlance, slowly following the barrel of the lance down towards the hands of the one holding the weapon, there calmly stood Lt. Morgan holding the his Scissor Cannon gunlance as if nothing was wrong, "I'll have you know that the man that stands before you now is a great man and once was a great hunter that held a higher guild rank than you before he joined the Guild Knights. So for your own sake, I advise you shut that gigantic bug catcher you call a mouth, before I fill it with a round and your team mates will have to clean what's left of your head up off the ground with chopsticks." came the icy voice of the Lieutenant before he smiled coldly and then in one swift motion the gunlance was gone from the hunters neck and strapped to his back.

The rest of the hunters stayed dead still while the events had been going on, right now they were re-evaluating the Captain as he slowly turned around to face them, "Well now that Lt. Morgan is done with the pleasantries, I will explain the formation to you." The captain checked to make sure he had the hunters undivided attention, which strangely he did, "Well the large guy with the big mouth and his te..." "Mike!" the large hunter interrupted, "Really now, I thought it was cannon fodder up until now, strange I wonder what gave me that idea." Cpt. Ibiki shot back in a eerie cheerful voice, "Well Hunter Mike, you and your team will be in front of the convoy since you are the higher ranked team, and you?" the captain asked pointing to the other hunter group, in a second a young man stood forward wearing Conga armour and a Battle Helm, "My name is Bernhart Steve" came the man's voice, "Well Steve you will be at the rear will Lt. Morgan here, his such a fun guy don't you think." Again the strange eerie cheerful voice the captain used seemed to send shivers down most of the hunter's spines.

With everything all said and done the hunters went to the positions they were assigned, some in a better mood than others, the lieutenant saluted his captain and returned to the rear. The not so young captain climbed the ladder up to the top of the first wagon, once there he bent down and picked up his Valkyrie Great sword and sheathed it in place, sighing he thought 'this is going to be one long bloody trip.'


	2. Danger in the Wild

Chapter 2: Danger in the Wild

It had been a week and a half since their departure from their home of Mountiduman and right now they were tracking down a path somewhere in the middle of the mountain stream valley region, so far the lush green world had provided few problems, there was the odd vespoid here and there, but so far the only major problem if you could call it that, was the overzealous Velocidrome, who tried to assault the convoy from the side with five of his velociprey minions. Unfortunately for the Velocidrome it ended up with two holes, one through the throat and another through the back, both from the ballista canon, while his minions suffered defeat when they turned to see there once proud leader fall and were killed from behind by the guild knights, all this happened before the hunters could even react, which seemed to irritate Mike and his team.

The day had been quite humid so far and it was only just past noon, most of the convoy had removed their helms to cool down a bit, and the gunners were finding it hard to see through the thick brush of plants and trees, and it was going to take awhile before they could see around them properly as it was still another two weeks before they reached the sand plains and then the real heat starts. After that it was the Great Desert which was known for its elder dragon.

Luckily the day had so far also been more peaceful, well until the sounds of bushes shacking near the back of the convoy could be heard, Lt. Morgan stopped and turned just as the hunters at the back of the convoy did, they readied themselves and waited, the very next second a Gagua burst through the dense bush, the strange bird like creature ran straight between the hunters and dived into the bush on the opposite side, the hunters watched as the bird vanished into the underbrush before they looked back at each and began to laugh at the funny sight, the next second all was a blur for the four hunters as something sent them flying in different directions, only a few feet away Lt. Morgan watched as a large blue beast barrelled through the hunters as if they weren't even there, from what he could make out it was none other than a Aoashira, a large blue bear like beast that was easily angered and very dangerous when it was, from what else he could make out as the beast was gone in seconds was that it was very injured, most likely near death, his suspicions were all, but confirmed when not even 10 seconds later and fifteen meters away from where the beast exploded from the trees, two hunters burst forth and dashed over the path before disappearing into the tress just like the Aoashira did.

Quickly turning to Sgt. Mel, who had heard all the commotion and came to investigate. "Sgt. Mel take three of the Privates and follow those hunters, we need to make sure they are alright." Were the quick decisive orders from the Lieutenant, with just a short salute Sgt. Mel pointed to three Privates and within a minute they were geared up and charged after the beast, it didn't take her long to find the Aoashira's tracks as one it ran in a straight line and two it was leaving quite a nasty blood trail. Meanwhile back at the convoy Lt. Morgan had decided to check up on the hunters.

As Lt. Morgan surveyed the hunters, he only then realize the extent of the damage, out of the four hunters only two seemed uninjured, those two being the team leader who was standing near a tree and the other which from what he was told was the rookie of their team, before he could think further his thoughts were interrupted by a scream of agony from the only female hunter in the group, running to her side the lieutenant found a bone protruding from her upper left arm, mostly likely had come from being tackled into the nearby tree, thinking quickly he pulled a mega potion from his pouch and got her to gulp it down, it wouldn't fix the fractured bone fully by it would at least help with the pain.

As Lt. Morgan was finishing with the female hunter, some of the guild knights from under the command of Lt. Colt arrived, he ordered one to keep watch on her while he checked the other hunters. As he got up he saw the rookie hunter was standing above another hunter, his eyes where wide with shock and he seemed unable to move, the hunter who was lying on the ground seemed to almost be a few millimetres deep in the ground. Deciding this was his next destination he jogged over to the downed hunter, what he found was far from pleasant.

The hunter that was now stuck in the ground was by far the worst off, it seems that he was knocked straight down and then trampled on as if he were a door mat, it was not good, he was bleeding from the mouth and while Lt. Morgan was no doctor it was by no means hard to tell what the problem was as his left side where his ribs, lung and left shoulder were, well let's just say he was more compact in that area than any human being should be. Making haste the Lieutenant tipped out his pouch searching desperately for something, finally he found the red liquid he was looking for, it was his only one but the hunter needed more than he did.

Forcing the man's mouth open he tipped the red liquid into the hunters' mouth and prayed for the best. Again ordering another Guild Knight to stay with the man, he got up and saw Steve, who was still in shock, by now most of the convoy was arriving and the Captain was checking with the other hunters, so Lt. Morgan got up and headed towards Steve. As he got closer he could see the shock in the man's eyes as he leaned against the tree, this was obviously more than the hunter had ever seen and could ever handle. Lt. Morgan came up next to Steve and decided to put his hand on his shoulder hoping to get his attention, what he got was not at all what he expected, as soon as his hand touched the man's shoulder there came an strange cracking noise and the next second Steve was lying face first in the dirt, at that very second Lt. Morgan's brain went blank.

A shocked Lt. Morgan was brought out of his brain freeze by the shrieking of the female hunter, finally deciding to look down, Lt. Morgan was faced with the demise of the Hunter, there in the back of Steve's head just below the base of the skull was a largish branch sticking out, covered in blood. The next second a voice spoke and the lieutenant almost jumped out of his own skin, quickly calming himself he turned to the voice that addressed him, asking him to report. "Sir, from what I was able to observe, the hunters stopped to investigate a suspicious noise, which turned out to be a Gagua." The captain nodding knowing what a Gagua was, but was suspicious as it was highly unlikely that the bird like beast could do such damage and so he let the lieutenant continue, "well sir the Gagua ran straight down the middle of the hunters, they turned and watched it disappear in to the bush again before they burst out in to laughter, it was at that very second that an Aoashira burst forth and charged straight through the hunters. Sir" the captain could hear the shock in the lieutenant's voice even though Lt. Morgan was trying to sound emotionless.

The captain saw that Morgan was looking down at the corpse again, "Anything else you need to report Lieutenant?" Capt. Ibiki spoke with an even voice as he was far more experienced in the deaths of men before his eyes. "Sir, yes sir. I have given a Mega Potion to the female hunter and an Ancient Potion to the crushed hunter, but they will need medical attention, also the Aoashira seemed heavily injured due to what look liked sword cuts, and to help with that finding I did see two hunters exit the trees a few seconds after the beast, but they were about fifteen meters away and moving fast, so I doubt they saw that the beast had barged through the hunters." Was the reply of Lt. Morgan as he tore his gaze from the dead hunter, "What did they look like Lt. Morgan and were they also badly injured?" the Captain interrupted. "Well sir they seem quite tall, the one in front wore what looked like Ceanataur armour and the other one wore Rathalos armour, but I couldn't tell if they were injured although from the way they moved if they are injured they either very good at hiding it or it was nothing major, Sir."

At the very moment the Lieutenant was going to explain to Capt. Ibiki that he had sent Sgt. Mel and some men to check on the two hunters, the loud mouth Mike and his team walked into the area. "Well this is what they get for hiring pathetic hunters, hahaha" the large hunter bellowed and burst out laughing as his team joined him, their laughing was cut short however when Mike found himself out of breath and dangling a few inches off the ground, his back against the rear wagon, "The death of a human being isn't something to laugh at, neither is the injuries these rookies have suffered plus they were inexperienced not pathetic, so I advise you return to the front of the convoy where I told you to stay or someday soon you will find yourself lost in the desert without any weapon or armour being ass raped by a Monoblos!" the ice in the captains voice seem to make the air in the area cool down almost tenfold, again Mike seemed to be weak in the knees as Cpt. Ibiki lowered him slightly before tightening his hold on Mike's neck. Then just as quick as he found himself pinned to the wagon, he was through to the ground landing just inches away from his comrades.

Mikes team mates picked him up off the ground before disappearing in what seemed to be almost a magic trick. The Captain turned around to face Lt. Morgan only to find everybody staring at him in amazement, even the uninjured hunter had what look to be a look of thanks on his face, "Alright you lazy fools, get back to your duties, you three there, get a stretcher for that man, and you over there get that girl bandaged up as best as you can, Now Lieutenant what else did you have to report?" the captain spoke with authority in his voice which shook the troops back to ground and they returned to their duties with haste, not wanting to anger the captain further. Now once again before Lt. Morgan could report, the subject of his next report walked into the clearing, "Captain Ibiki, sir." came the out of breath yet sweet voice of one Sgt. Mel, and in doing so made Capt. Ibiki put up his hand to prevent Morgan from speaking, "Yes Sergeant, what do you want?' was the curious voice of Cpt. Ibiki, "Sir, Lt. Morgan sent me an three others after the Hunters and beast to check that the hunters survived, Sir!" the voice of the sergeant was halted when the captain once again put his hand up only this time it was for Sgt. Mel to stop.

The Captain turned to his Lieutenant, "Good think, was this all that you still needed to report?," "Yes sir!" was the quick reply of the lieutenant. "Well then Lt. Morgan, get some men together and get this poor soul wrapped up in some cloth until we decided how to proceed." Saluting his captain, Morgan turned around and started towards the one wagon containing blankets, thinking about how some nice dark Moga rum would really go down well just about now. Back with captain and Sgt. Mel, he had put down his hand and allowed her to continue with her report, "Sir, we followed the long blood trail of the beast which lead me to believe it was heavily injured, unfortunately we did not get to the beast in time to see the hunters finish off the Aoashira, when we arrived at the area where the beast was killed all that was left was the remains of a shock trap, most likely planted there before the hunters chased the beast to that spot, we also found a few hollow bee hives, fish and different types of vegetation, leading me to believe that the area was the nesting grounds of the beast and that the hunters knew this." Sgt. Mel stopped and waited for a response from the captain, she didn't have to wait long, "So from what you've told me so far, these hunters were quite skilled and most likely tracked and studied their prey, do we know how the beast died?" "Yes sir, as far as I can tell the beast got trapped in the shock trap and was killed by a stab wound through the head and a large gash along the throat as there was two large blood pools below each wound and its unlikely the beast could have survived either wound, there were also numerous other wounds, but none as fatal as the other two, sir".

The Captain stood for awhile and though about what he had been told, if the facts were correct then there were two hunters, both of high skill, they obviously knew their prey and strong enough to force it to retreat, then chased it back to its lair where once it was trapped the most likely both delivered the final blows at the same time, one stabbing his blade through the skull will the other most likely placed his blade at the beasts throat and then wrenched it back creating the gash at the throat, making sure the creature died quickly. The only thing was where they went to after they downed the beast, turning back to Sgt. Mel he asked his unanswered question, and she responded "Well Sir, we found two tracks heading in a north westerly direction, Sir". "Yukumo Village" the captain voiced out of nowhere, "Sorry Sir" the sergeant asked with a confused look on her face.

The captain smiled, unlike most of the troops under him, he knew the land of Minegarde pretty well and if he was correct in his calculations then Yukumo Village was a day and a half's travel from here in the same direction the sergeant said the hunters were headed, also they needed to get the injured hunters to a doctor and Yukumo village had some good ones, so he explained to the sergeant what he meant and then about what was going to happen next.


	3. Detours and Denial

Chapter 3: Detours and Denial

That evening Capt. Ibiki was sitting at a makeshift camp on an old, over grown path that lead to the Mountain village of Yukumo village, with him was Sgt. Mel and four other troops as well as the four hunters. He had ordered Lt. Morgan to continue to lead the convoy to an old guild campsite, which was basically just an open area next to a cliff face. The lieutenant was ordered to set up camp and wait for his return, but right now the captain was sitting against and towering old tree, the light had faded and the once lush green world was now an array of black, dark blues and dark greens thanks only to the fire in the pit only a meter away from him.

The captain was lost in his thoughts about the hunters that were injured and the ones that brought down the Aoashira, but he was unable to dwell on these thoughts for very long as the sweetest voice, a voice that belonged to the woman who'd captured his heart not long after being placed under his command, he turned his head towards the voice, "Captain, the men are in position and all seems normal so far, sir" staring at her juicy lips, the captain had to shake his longing thoughts out of his head so as to speak with red headed beauty before him, if only they were alone right now, then he would embrace her in a giant hug.

The captain did not speak as even after he shook his head the thoughts refused to leave, and all the while the young lady was standing to attention waiting even though she too was lost in her own thoughts, thoughts of her captain who sat before her, her mind racing with images of the captains strong body being close to hers and share a passionate kiss that would blow his mind, but it would all have to wait, as the guild frowned on relationships between ranking officers and as such if anybody found out there would be to many issues, so they kept their relationship a secret, besides it's not like they planned it, it just happened and only to other people knew of them, those being the Captains' Lieutenants, or as a few select people knew hunting partners. Before there days in the Guild, Morgan and Colt were good friends from Moga and used to go on hunts together, on one particular day the quest the wanted require three people, they had searched the tavern and eventually found Ibiki sitting near the back they asked if he was on a team and when he responded no, they asked if he would join them on their hunt as they require three hunters, he thought about it and finally agreed, after that hunt they became great friends and even though Ibiki was a few ranks higher than them he only went on hunts that they were allowed on. Years later when Ibiki was approached to join the Guild Knights, he did so and Morgan and Colt joined too, the rest is history.

By now Capt. Ibiki had regained his composure and spoke to his red headed blossom in a deep gentle voice "That's good hear Sgt. Mel, and how are the Hunters doing?" Sgt. Mel was bought out of her day dreaming by her kind lovers voice, and blushed about the images that had ran through her head, "Sir, the rookie is still shaken and the female hunter has finally stopped sobbing, her arm should be fine when we reach the village, but she is not in any danger. The hunter that was crushed has been put to sleep with some sleeping herbs we found nearby, we mixed the herbs with another ancient potion, so he should make it through the night" was her response still with red cheeks, sighing the captain responded in a tired voice "well that's good to hear, but hopefully this will be a lesson to the guild elders, that letting inexperienced rookies on a tri..." the last word of the captain could not be heard because at that very moment the young female rookie would had been off to one side, had decided to interrupt him in a full blown rage, "HOW DARE YOU CALL US WEAK AND INEXPERINCED HUNTERS, WE ..." the girl could not utter another word when, "SHUT YOUR MOUTH GIRL, nobody called you weak, just inexperienced!" was the captains icy reply causing the girl to stumble back a bit.

Seconds later the hunter found her voice again, "There's no proof of that." "Yes there is, firstly most of your team is wearing velociprey armour and are barely rank 3 hunters, the monster that swatted you aside like an annoying fly was called an Aoashira, which is considered a high ranking monster and known for its strength, so maybe if you all had stronger armour your friend in the stretcher would be in better shape, but if you had more experience you would have put on your helmets when you heard the noise and with some chance your leader would still be breathing also laughing when the Gugua ran past instead of staying alert you may have been able to jump out of the heavily injured beasts path, but now it's too late to be fighting about such issues, what's done is done" these words were not spoke from the captains mouth, but rather that of the fiery red headed sergeant, in mere seconds after the words were spoken the young hunter broke into sobs before turning and sprinting to the other side of the stretcher, away from the Captain an Sergeant.

The rest of the night was silent once the hunter had finished crying herself to sleep, the only sounds to be heard were that of the many bugs crawling around in the dark underbrush of the once green valley, when the make shift camp awoke the next morning while the sun was just barely peaking over the horizon, they were thankful to find no monster had made them a meal while they slept, they pack quietly and headed out all eating a ration as they walked down the beaten path, the huntress kept her distance from the two officers, which was understandable after the nights encounter.


	4. The Village in the Valley

Chapter 4: The Village in the Valley

It was mid afternoon and Capt. Ibiki and his troops were now standing a few meters away from the flourishing mountain village of Yukumo and you could tell who had been here before and who hadn't, all you had to do was study the looks of amazement and curiousness, those being everybody except the Captain who had been here a few times when he was still a hunter, stepping up to the gates with diamond patterns on it, the captain was stopped by two guards wearing the traditional hunting clothes for Yukumo which was a pair of black and red hakama pants with sleeveless black shirts and a strange circular straw hat. The one guard was around 7 feet tall and was just muscle and carried a large Shell Hammer on his back, while the second was only around 5.7ft and lanky looking and was armed with SNS known as the Velocidrome Bite.

The large guard spoke in a booming voice, "Halt, state your business in Yukumo village, please!"the captain nodded and handed the man his guild card as he answered the man's question "My men and I are here to drop off some hunters that were badly injured and one killed when an Aoashira barged through them, also I would like to speak with your chief" the large man nodded while scanning over the guild card, then turned to the lanky man beside him, "Martin please escort the captain to our chief and then get the doctors to report to the main gate." The grizzly voice of the larger man ordered, prompting the smaller man to salute before turning to walk up the first flight of stairs and responding, "Don't get lonely without me, baka" the large guard ignored his colleague's insult, obviously taking his job quite seriously, the captain turned to Sgt. Mel, "Your in charge Sergeant!" and then he followed Martin up the cobbled stairs with grass along the edges.

Once at the top of the stairs the captain gazed at his surroundings, taking in the lovely traditional oriental village, the buildings were made from the highest quality wood in Minegarde that came from the active forestry Yukumo had, the wood was also one of the villages' largest exports and made the village very wealth. Looking in front of him he saw the General store which sold almost everything from seeds, fruit, vegetables, all the way through to whetstones and empty jars, but the most noticeable item was the one that was on the scale in front of the shop attendant dressed in yellow, Yukumo short grain sticky rice, which is used for sushi and is another one of Yukumo villages biggest exports, grown in the rice paddies in the wetlands not far from here. The lady behind the counter smiled at the captain and he smiled back.

It was at this very moment that a little deep red blur ran out right in front of the Captain causing him to stop and see what it was, as he watched the little creature run past he heard it say, "Nyaa, sorry, in a rush nyaa." Capt. Ibiki kept watch as the felyne rushed towards the blacksmith shop, known as Doji Giri or "Monster Cutter" and it's famous for its katanas and longswords which has many a longsword users coming from far and wide just to say their version of widely known blades was made in Yukumo by the great smithy Hoki, speaking of which was standing outside his shop at this very moment holding his gigantic Blacksmith Hammer over his shoulder which looked odd since he was a small Wyverian man and the hammer almost twice his size, but then wyverians were known to be extremely strong. At the moment though the smithy was listening to two hunters as they inspected his work, the one was admiring the traditional village katana made with iron ore and the same high quality wood harvested in the area, while the other hunter was trying on their new Hermitaur Gunner armour.

Near the two hunters checking their new equipment was a hunter in Khezu armour talking to the pretty oriental lady in blue clothing, most likely placing an order with the lady for new equipment or to upgrade old equipment. While on the other side of the building was a strangely shaped small booth with and acorn lid on top and that is where the little red fur ball was standing, collecting what looked to be Qurupeco armour made especially for felyne comrades, on top of the counter was a grey felyne manning the booth. Just as the Captain was about to keep walking the lanky guard had stopped one of the village children running amongst the few villagers walking around, "hey Shuji, would you mind doing me a favour, I'll pay you 10 zenny?" the little boy around ten years old with jet black hair, eyes lit up at the chance to get some money, "sure what do I have to do?" came the squeaky voice of the eager ten year old, "well all you need to do is run to Dr. Tomio's house and ask him to go help some hunters by the main gate urgently, can you do that for me?" the lanky guard asked in a child like voice , the kid nodded his head furiously as the guard gave him the 10 zenny and the next second the kid took off like a Rathalos out of hell, sprinting past the general store, going up some stairs between the flight of stairs the captain just came up and the general store.

After the boy had sped off the guard had continued to a small flight of stairs leading to the centre of the village, he was greeting people as they went and people greeted back, the captain followed and greet as some villagers greeted him others gave him curious looks, Capt Ibiki watched as some kids run past him once they were at the top of the stairs, the first one had a wooden mask that looked like a Jinouga, the other three that follow wore pots on their heads and had sticks crudely craved to look like swords in their hands, the girl in front of two boys was shouting, "Get the Jinouga, today we become famous!" as she swung her two sticks wildly about showing what weapons she preferred, the captain could also hear the kid with the Jinouga mask laugh as he took some quick turns around villagers and was able to escape the supposed hunters, the captain laughed as he watched the kids disappear in the crowd. "Cute aren't they?" came a lovely voice that got the captains attention.

Turning his head forward again he realized he was now on opposite side of the stairs and there in front of a felyne head shaped rock with a waterfall pouring out its mouth was a sturdy wooden bench with a dark red cloth and diamond shaped patterns on the bottom thrown over it, there sat a beautiful Wyverian lady dressed in a fine traditional dark pink silk dress with green lining, at once the captain knew who she was, despite looking in her late twenties, she was the Village elder and she was by no means young by human standards, she had ruled Yukumo for many years, even before his time and was older than most of the inhabitants of her own village, her grandfather had founded the village many hundreds of years ago when he lead his family and some eastern families to this very spot from the far east of the Schrade region when the area became too dangerous due to monster populations getting out of control and some say that it was due to the black dragon of legend, the great Fatalis.

The captain watched as the lanky man bowed deeply before he spoke, "My dear lady, I have Capt. Ibiki here, he requests an audience with me lady." The Village elder smiled gentle as she gave a short bow of her head, "Thank you Martin, you may return to your post." She answered with her enchanting voice. The guard bowed once more before turning and leaving through the small crowd. "So Captain, what do I owe the honour of this visit" the chief's voice was kind yet held a kind of authority to it, the captain bowed to the village elder, she may look young but she deserves the respect, "Well Elder, my convoy was on its way to Loc Lac City when a Aoashira barged its way through a few hunters travelling with us, leaving two badly injured and one dead, we have requested your doctors see them. So right now I'm a few men short." The captain announced, "well that shouldn't be a problem, I'm sure I could assign a few of ours." She replied in earnest, hearing the reply he wanted the Captain pushed his luck some more. "Well you see chief that is why I actually came, the Aoashira that injured the hunters was being chased by two hunters, who killed it and left in this direction." "Mmmm Well I didn't assign any quest for an Aoashira, but you could check with the Guild Master." She replied sincerely, bowing the captain thanked the elder and turned heading towards the stairs leading to the gathering hall.

As the captain placed his right foot on the very first step the voice of the chief stopped him, "Capt. Ibiki, if you wouldn't mind humouring me, what did the two hunters look like?" , "Well from what my Lieutenant told me, they were quite tall and one wore a Ceanataur Armour while the other wore Rathalos Armour." Was his answer, the chief smiled before responding with pride in her voice "Well that's not too hard to figure out, those two are some of the villages best hunters!" the captain had walked back towards the chief once she had began to reply, once in front of her he asked eagerly "And if I may know, how do you know it's the same two I speak of?" the chief folded her right arm as she leaned her head on her left index finger, " Well for one thing they're both tall, next they are the only hunters that hunt in a group of two, the rest are either alone or a group of four, other than that there are only a few hunters that rank high enough to hunt such a beast and they are some of them and the last nail in the coffin so to speak is that the they are the only two with Ceanataur S Armour and Rathalos S Armour, no other hunters have those types or low ranks of those armours."

The chief stopped speaking for dramatic effect and it was fun to watch the anticipation on the captain's face grow as he waited for the names. Finally deciding to put Capt. Ibiki out of his misery she spoke, "The ones you seek are the brothers Kurosawa Rekka and Kiryu." She announced as if she was talking about the weather. The captain asked with hope at getting the answer he wanted, "Village elder, if it may be possible could I please have these two hunters join me on my journey?" "While that is fine by me, you will need to ask the brothers that. Let me send someone to get them." The chief replied cheerfully, as she looked around, the captain heard the voice of his redheaded angel, "Captain Sir, the medical staff, have retrieved the injured hunters and I decided it best to report to you for further instructions, Sir." The captain turned to face his secret love "Good Sergeant, you're just in time to meet the new hunters, hopefully." With a hint of joy he replied.

The next moment the chief called out to a hunter wearing traditional Yukumo gear, "Akodo, come here for a moment." She asked gently, the hunter quickly changed his direction and adjusted his Ravager Great Sword on his back, bowing when he reached his chief, "Akodo, I need you to fetch me the Kurosawa brothers, please!" was the elder's polite request, the hunter responded eagerly "It would be an honour, Chief" as the hunter got up to leave, "Please let Sgt. Mel accompany you?" was the captains request, the hunter nodded and waited as Sgt. Mel came to stand next to him, before he led her towards the training grounds, as they walked past a two story house the hunter commented, "This is the brothers house, but it's very unlikely they are at home." and so the two continued down the winding path .


	5. The Blood of Brothers

Chapter 5: The Blood of Brothers

The young hunter and sergeant had just reached the gates of the training grounds and could see two people in the field; one was a young man dressed in a vest, sweat pants and sandals, swing a Bone Switch axe around while the other was an old man with a small grey beard and wore a dark brown robe. Every now and then the old man would strike the silver haired youth in various places with a cane, Akodo looked over at the sergeant's face, seeing her curiousness at the display before them, "That's Sensei Iwao, he trains most of the new recruits, his belief is if you can't handle the sting of his cane then you aren't going to stand after the bitch slap of a tired Narugakuruga." Akodo spoke with a bit of a chuckle in his voice; Sgt. Mel nodded as she could see where the Instructor was coming from.

After watching the young man get swiped a few more times and not finding a trace of who they were looking for, Akodo decided to Interrupt, "Hey Sensei Iwao, have you seen the brothers today!" he walked towards Iwao as the man turned his head to face Akodo and the sergeant following. The old oriental man smiled "They trained this morning, so you might want to tr.." "Ouch" screamed the silver haired youth now sporting a red mark across his face, "Turn your left foot more in and watch what you are doing not what I'm doing, Haro!" came the scolding voice of one Iwao, who never turned his head making Sgt. Mel wonder how he knew his student was making mistakes, "Now as I was saying, your best bet is to go check the pier at the farm, they usually fishing around this time." The old man smiled before turning back to his student with a serious face, Akodo bowed and left the way he came with Sgt. Mel in tow.

Walking out the training grounds gates Sgt. Mel turned to Akodo "Well his nice!" she spoke with a hint of sarcasm, "Well wait till you see him angry, then his really nice!" was his reply, the both shared a laugh at the sensei's expense, "So what can you tell me of these brothers? So far every time someone mentions them, they seem to hold them in high regard." Sgt. Mel asked. Akodo looked at her, "Well that's easy, they are some of the best hunters this village has produced and they don't mind helping out rookies such as myself, with tips and good ways to bring down certain monsters, only bummer for me is that they are both younger than me, but in all fairness they have been trained to be hunters almost all their life." came the young Akodo's reply.

Meanwhile back with the chief and captain, "So Kurosawa, any relation to the Jinouga Slayer?" the captain inquired, "Yes, they are Kurosawa Tatsuo's sons, and they were trained by the Daora Shinobi, Kisho. That is why they are good at what they do even though the eldest is 20 and the youngest 18." The chief answered with pride, as it was a well known fact that when the first Jinouga and so far the only Jinouga that appeared in this region, the only hunter able to slay the beast was Kurosawa Tatsuo, he had tracked and studied the Jinouga for three days before engaging the beast and slaying it, though injured he was not in any critical danger. Then there was Kisho, the Daora Shinobi, he was the hunter known for bringing down a Kushala Daora all on his own while near Minegarde City many, many years ago, wearing his Shinobi Earth armour, this happened around the time she became chief of Yukumo, he had moved to the her village soon after bring down the wind tempest. Unfortunately the captain couldn't ask any more questions as some villagers had come to speak to her.

Near the farm the two searching for the brothers had stopped a passing felyne, "Nya, yes the brothers' nyaa are by the pier nyaaa" and with that answer the black and white felyne continue on its path back to the village store to deliver seeds. After thanking the felyne as it left the two continued down the path and finally through the gates, once through the gates Akodo pointed to the pier "There's Kiryu" he exclaimed. As Sgt. Mel peered to where Akodo was pointing, she could see quite a large man in baggie dark blue thee quarter shorts and a black sleeveless shirt, standing on the pier with a fishing pole in his hands, as the two got to the pier the large man easily 6.6ft tall, turned to them and smiled strangely, "So Akodo man, you finally impressed a girl huh, must have been those super awesome moves I showed hey, be honest!" Was the joyful, bellowing voice of the large young man causing Akodo to go three different shades of red in seconds, while Sgt. Mel went one shade, but not due to embarrassment, no that was due to anger. "No we were sent by your chief to fetch you and your brother!" Sgt. Mel spoke before any other ridicules comments could be made, "Oh well tough luck man, anyway we just need to wait for my Otōto." The man said while jabbing his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the water behind him, "Otōto?" Sgt. Mel asked, "Means Brother" Akodo explained.

Peering around the muscular man, Sgt Mel could make out a humanoid shape in the water only five meters away and closing fast, in a matter of seconds it burst through the water surface and two hands clamped down on the deck pulling and then pushing their owner in one fluid motion onto the pier. As the new individual stood up, Sgt. Mel couldn't help but notice the difference between the two brothers the new comer was 6.4ft and looked between 17 and 18 while the larger brother which she guessed was the oldest looked between 22 and 23 sporting side burns and a goatee, while the new comer was clean shaven, then there was the size difference not just in height, but in muscle while the older looking brother was a mass of muscle and very imposing, definitely a power house favouring strength over speed, the new comer while still muscular, he was more lean and toned an built for speed and agility, although not saying he couldn't pack a mean punch. The only similarity between the two was their olive skin tone and messy short dark brown hair.

The new comer in black three quarter shorts gazed at the visitors, with his dark brown almost black piercing eyes that seemed to take in everything around them. "Is there a problem Akodo?" was the deep serious voice of the individual, Akodo instantly responded "the chief wishes to speak with you and Kiryu, Rekka!", "Very well, just let me through a shirt on." Rekka responded before grabbing a towel off one of the support beams and proceeded to dry himself off; after he was done he shoved it into a small grey rucksack nearby and a pulled out a blood red sleeveless shirt, throwing it on, over his broad shoulders. It was at this point that Sgt. Mel noticed a black tribal tattoo on his right shoulder; the tribal tattoo looked to be that of a Narugakuruga and under the picture was some kanji, unfortunately she couldn't read Kanji, she looked over at the other brother and saw a similar tattoo except it looked more like a Tigrex and the kanji looked different.

The muscled bound brother, then proceeded to pick up two belts each with blades attached to the back, handing one to his brother, Sgt. Mel had a closer look, the one was a straight thin black blade with a circular guard and black wrappings around the handle, it looked like a smaller straighter version of some of the Longsword Katanas she's seen before, while the bigger brother was strapping a similar sword to his back except it was curved and had a blue and orange handle, she thought it quite strange that these two would be sword and shield users, they seem more like great sword users. Once the brothers were done they nodded to the two in front of them and started walking in the direction of the chief, the other two falling in behind them.

The four walked in total silence until, "So bro, what do you think the chief wants, maybe to slay another ferocious monster and show how awesome we are!" it was Kiryu who broke the silence with his overly confident voice, "We'll see when we get there" was his brothers short reply sending the group back into silence with his cold tone, while the sergeant wondered how strong these two really were, since the blades on their backs were, looked well crafted and quite strong, but she would asked them later, maybe when the smaller one was away and she could speak to the larger one alone as he seems to love bragging about himself.

Arriving at the chief's bench the two brothers stepped forward and bowed low, "Good I see they found you two, Thank you Akodo you may return to whatever it was you were doing." The chiefs voice announced with joy in it while the brothers straightened out, raising her right hand, palm up she motioned the Captains attention to the first smaller brother. "As you requested Capt. Ibiki, here are the Kurosawa Brothers, Rekka the eldest!" Sgt. Mel looked totally floored and so did the captain for many reasons, since the smaller, younger looking brother was actually the eldest, "and this is the younger brother Kiryu." The chief motioned to the bigger brother, the two turned and bowed to the captain before the eldest brother spoke, "If I may know? Why have you requested us?" the captain starred for a few more seconds think that Lt. Morgan was right, the two were tall, the eldest only slightly taller than himself and if the chief was right then these two would be great help on the trip.

The captain decided to speak frankly with the two as they didn't seem to look the type that beat around the bush, "Well you see lads, My convoy had a run in with and Aoashira and" "You look strong enough to kill it yourself" Rekka interrupted with a matter of fact tone which the captain didn't seem to mind, "Well that's just it, you two already killed it yesterday!" he watched as the brothers eyes held recognition of the beast, "Yeah it didn't stand much chance, poor thing should have left Ojiisan Saru's honey alone, might still be alive if it hadn't injured his helpers." The captain looked at Kiryu and quizzically asked. "Ooojiisann Saaruu?" at this point the serious Rekka gave a slight chuckle, "It means Old man monkey, although if he heard us call him that he might freak." "Most likely set his bees on you two" was the sweet reply of the lovely chief. While the sergeant seemed to have enter a bit of a laughing fit at the image of a Conga with a walking stick and hat on sending bees after the two brothers, while the captain stopped chuckling long enough to speak "OK well here's how it is, the Aoashira ran over some low ranked hunters that were travelling with us" "why didn't they just move out the way" was the interrupting question of Kiryu.

The Captain stopped and looked at Kiryu and explained about the Gagua and the laughing and how one is dead, one crushed and one with a broken arm, "So let me guess, you want us to replace the injured. Now if I may know where your convoy is going?' was the self answered and curious question of Rekka, "Yes your right I'm here to ask you to replace them and our convoy is on a guild mission to investigate the loss of communication with the expedition team that travelled to the New Land." Was the captain's reply, the younger brother spun towards his elder brother, "No way we can pass up an opportunity like this bro, a new land and most of all new monsters, come on what do you say?" the eagerness over flowing as the youngest questioned his brother, "Who ever said anything about passing stuff up, but we need to check with the chief"

"Its fine by me, just bring me back a gift."

"Well that's that settled, now we just have to talk to the folks and we're off" was the brother's answer.

Checking the time, Rekka turned to the captain, "I would advise we stay here tonight, since we still have to prepare, you can stay at my parents inn just down the way, we'll show you where it is, since we are on our way their now anyway." His voice seemed monotone. "We shall do that and maybe while we're all there we can get something to eat an discuss the quest in more detail." was the captains agreement as the brothers bowed to the Chief as the sun was now casting an orange and purple glow over the valley due to its setting in the west. As they left going over a little bridge with a stream flowing under it from the mouth the felyne waterfall, the captain and sergeant bid the chief a good night.


	6. The Fierce Legend

Chapter 6: The Fierce Legend

The brothers led the Guild knights down the cobbled path, "So lads, if you don't mind me asking, can you explain how you came to be in possession of those two blades you carry, especially the Ninja Blade?" The brothers could hear the extreme curiousness in the captain's voice, "Well they were given to us by our late sensei as a graduation gift, Cool Huh?" spoke the prideful voice of Kiryu. The sergeant looked curiously again at the blades and even though she could see the were quite rare, but still what made them so special that the captain wanted know, "Sir, if you don't mind me asking" "Go ahead Sgt. Mel" the captain allowed her to proceed. "Well Sir, I just want to know why you asked them that question?" Sgt. Mel asked confused, "The reason your captain asked is due to the rarity of the materials used to make them, as your captain already said, mine is known as a Ninja Blade and made from Daora, Chameleos and Fire dragon webbing plus some Remobra skin for the handle." Spoke the emotionless voice of Rekka.

Next to Rekka, Kiryu pulled out his blade and turned to Sgt. Mel to show her, "Yeah and mine is from Jhen Mohran materials and is called Jhen Kodachi, though not as rare as my brothers blade its helpful against dragon types ." Kiryu proclaimed as he puffed out his chest, Sgt Mel nodded her head in understanding, but still didn't get why the brothers used a sword and shield instead of a bigger weapon. She decided to forget about the blades as they had just started walking past a high wooden fence that had steam rising behind it. "Excuse me, what's behind the fence?"She asked, before the boys could answer her, Capt Ibiki jump the bow-gun "Its Yukumo's best attraction, a natural phenomenon which attracts Hunters and tourists alike, the hot springs." "Yeah and since it is part of the inn, you can check it out later" Explained Kiryu as they were just 5 meters away from the entrance to the modest looking Thundering Jinouga Inn, that was according to the sign hung above the door which also had the image of a Jinouga with electricity all around it.

Stepping through the large swing ornate doors and finding themselves on the far right of the building, Capt. Ibiki and Sgt. Mel could see inside the large inn, which had a large dining area filled with tables and chairs and all types of people, there were some hunters near the back drinking and arm wrestling, other people were eating and talking while waitresses in greenish blue and dark yellow outfits were navigating the tables, taking orders and entering and exiting two small swing doors on the far side of the building with large plates of food, at the same time there were Felynes of all different colours, cleaning tables and collecting empty bottles and dirty dishes. Near the swing doors was the long bar counter with chairs around and people sat drinking, behind the bar pouring drinks and chatting to the guests were two lovely barmaids dressed similar to the waitresses.

If the captain and sergeant could read each other's minds they would have realized that they were thinking along the same lines and that was that this inn was a welcoming, homely and had a very cheerful atmosphere, especially with the help of the upbeat music being played by an all felyne band on a small stage in the middle of the dining area. While looking around the sergeants' view was obscured, readjusting her eyes to see what was blocking her view she found herself looking at and elegantly dressed lady fine blue silk, smiling at her, "How may I help you this evening, would you like a room or just a table?" she said in a voice that made you want a room even if you didn't, "There with us Rei-chan!" said Kiryu as he entered through the big doors with his brother right behind him, "oh sorry Rekka-sama, Kiryu-sama" she bowed and apologised quickly, as she looked up she saw a scowling Rekka, gulping she nervously spoke "Is something the matter Rekka-sama?" and everybody turned to see the look on Rekka's face.

Kiryu instantly knew what the matter was and decided to put the tension in the air to rest, "Rei-chan forget Rekka, his just upset cause you referred to him as sama even though his asked you not to, so ignore him, Can we get a table though?" Rei quickly nodded and turned, looking around the dining hall she finally called to one of the waitresses to report to her. The waitress moved gracefully through the tables and chairs, making her way to the Rei. Once she arrived, she bowed and waited for Rei to speak "Nagisa, please escort the brothers and their guests to their usual table" "Yes Ma'am" she said in an innocent voice and turned "Please follow me" Nagisa bowed and then led them to their table near the back of the dining hall, the brothers were greeted and they greeted back as they walked towards their destination were they sat down at a large wooden table, "Is there anything I can get you to drink?" Nagisa asked, "I'll have some Flame dragon sake, please" Rekka order, "I'll have the house special, the Yukumo Thunder sake!" Kiryu declared, while the guild knights took a few seconds to decide, "Do you have some Pokke Blangonga Rum" the captain asked, "Yes sir we have many different types of alcohol here, and for the lady?" Nagisa informed the captain and then asked Sgt. Mel, "I'll just have some Red Minegarde Wine, please" "Sure thing, I'll get that right away " Nagisa said as she handed them all menus and walked off to the bar counter.

Just as the waitress left, the captain turned and looked around the place some more, not far from where they were sitting was a wooden sliding door with steam seeping through the top, right above the door was a picture of a small pool with steam rising off it, then he looked over to the bar, above it was the famous Jinouga, well its head anyway which seemed in better condition that you would expect, below it was a large one sided Greatsword which seemed to be giving off sparks of electricity every now and again, the colour of the materials seemed to match up with the colour of Jinouga of it, looking slightly more above the mounted head, he notice two more blades, but they were those that a felyne comrade use, the one made of Rathalos and the other of Jaggi materials. As Capt. Ibiki kept looking around a polite voice interrupted him, tearing his gaze from his surroundings, he focused it in on an elegantly dressed slightly plumpish, grey haired lady with glasses and she smiled sweetly "Good Evening" she started "I'm glad to see my sons have brought some better guests this time" she continued with a cheerful voice, "Hey, I always bring good guests" Kiryu spoke, sounding appalled at what his mother had insinuated, "Yes of course they are, that's why I end up throwing their overly drunk bullfango asses out the door and onto their faces" came the jolly voice of an enormous man, easily over 6.11ft and with extremely short grey and dark brown hair with slight balding in the front and a neatly trimmed grey and brown beard, "Or you threw them into the fence post on the opposite side of the path, hey Dad" proclaimed Rekka's voice evenly, the father seemed to act all innocent which seemed strange for such a big man "It was one time and I didn't intend to do that, he was just so darn light!" the large man shrugged as he replied.

Once the light banter between the family members had stopped, the large man spoke "So what do we owe the pleasure of a visit from a Guild Knights Captain to?" "Well Sir, we have requested that your sons join us on a long quest to the new land as the hunters that were with us had a run in with an Aoashira on the way to Loc Lac." The captain informed the man in a respectful tone, the man turned to his sons "Didn't you two kill one just yesterday?" "Same one, we just didn't see it run through the hunters as we were trying to get to its den before it." Kiryu responded a bit nervous as their father usually didn't approve of hunters being the cause of other hunters getting injured, the father didn't seem to bothered by the fact, at that point the drinks arrived and Nagisa waited for their meal orders, the guys at the table wait for Sgt. Mel to order first, she had looked at the menu and had decided to be daring, "Could I have the Loa Prawn nigiri, please" she asked, "I'll have the Dragon tail and crimson seabream" was the captains order steering on the side of caution. The brothers ponder for a second "I'll have the 1000 year crab maki, thanks" ordered Rekka kindly while Kiryu browsed the menu once more; "Yeah I'll have the Plesioth platter" he spoke, Nagisa nodded and repeated the order before leaving for the kitchen.

The father waited for the orders to be done before he brought up the topic of the boys leaving, "So boys, what have you decided?" "We've decided to go and we leave first thing in the morning." Rekka replied decisively , "So soon?" their mother asked seeming a little saddened at her sons early departure, the boys just nodded. Their father stood up and put his hands on his sons' shoulders, "Well Captain you couldn't be in better hands." He spoke with the utmost pride in his sons, "Yes so I have been told, I would have asked you to join us too Jinouga Slayer, but I doubt you would come." The captain explained, although he feared he had said something wrong as the gigantic man seem to be unimpressed with his final words, "Your right, I would not come as my hunting days are over and another thing although I delivered the final blow, I'm not the only Jinouga Slayer, there were three of us that brought the beast down." The father spoke in a serious voice, "Nyaa you are to kind Tatsuo-san Nyaa" spoke a vibrant red Felyne while he bowed and the captain looked utterly confused, from the reports he had read there were no other hunters with the man when he killed the beast, "You look confused captain, what my father means is he had help in the form of his felyne comrades Ryuu and Rock!" Rekka replied helping to cast some light on the matter for Captain Ibiki.

It was at this point that Rekka reached down and pulled a black Felyne out from under the table, "Meet Rock, who will now return your zenny, Hey Rock?" Rekka spoke confusing only the guild knights by what he meant, Capt. Ibiki's brain quickly caught on and he stuck his hand into his pouch to find his money missing, "Your Comrade was a Melynx?" the captain questioned as his zenny pouch was dropped on the table by the Felyne, "No his a Felyne who was raised by the Melynx tribe not far from here, when I found him, he was wounded due to a Rathian, so I patched him up and he decided to stay with me" Tatsuo explained "And don't worry he would have returned your zenny to you by the end of the of the night, he calls it honing his skills and teaching hunters to never turn their backs on a Melynx." He explained before he walked off to go check on the rest of the customers.

The mother turned to her two boys, "Come by tomorrow early and we will have a big breakfast prepared, as for you two I will get a room prepared" "You mean rooms Ma'am" the captain interrupted to which the lady chuckled, "Captain I may be old, but I'm by no means dumb, I see the way she glances at you and how you two are holding hands under the table, but don't worry I won't tell!" the mother replied as she stepped away while the pale skin of Sgt. Mel seemed to go blood red, "Also if you want I can arrange a private hot spring just for the two of you" which made the sergeant go 10 different shades of red, while the Captain nodded dumbly like an innocent school boy. Once the mother was out of view and the captain had regained the ability to speak properly, "Private hot springs, I thought it was all public?" he asked "No, that's the gathering hall your thinking of, here we have a public section where a bathing towel must be used, men and women only sections where the gender can go without the towel and then there are the private springs meant for couples who want some privacy" Kiryu explained.

It was now Sgt. Mel's turn to ask "What about perverts?" her question caused Kiryu to laugh out loud, "Don't worry we have our way of dealing with them and in Rekka's case its taking a Bamboo stick and striking the baka across his exposed Blangonga apples, hahahaha" the sergeant was slightly confused with a few things, "Baka, Blangonga apples?" she questioned, "Baka means Idiot and he means his nuts." Rekka answered as matter of fact, "Yeah and the guy couldn't stay in the springs because it stung too much, hahahahah" Kiryu kept laughing until his food arrived at which point he calmed himself down and began to eat. Once everyone had finished eating and the captain was done explaining the quest the two brothers bid the secret couple goodnight and retired back to their house in the centre of the village.

Getting up the two guild members headed for the bar counter to see if their room was ready, when they arrived they found a drunk female hunter with bandages around her left arm and she was talking to a distraught looking hunter next to her, who instantly noticed the captain and in doing so caused the drunk girl to turn and see what he was looking at, "Cccappptaiin" she slurred as she spoke and the captain eyed her, "Yes huntress, how is your friend?" he asked, genuinely curious as to the condition of the crushed hunter. The huntress swayed a bit before answering "Heee'lll bee fiiine innn a fffeeeww w w wweeks, mmbut ww what ii wwwannt isss fffor yyou to tt take theeee lllaad hherrrre wiiith y you?" the captain didn't like the idea at all, but the guild had allowed them to take the quest and the lad was in good shape still, well maybe not his mind, but hopefully the brothers could sort him out, "Fine he can come with, but he will be under close observation, if he doesn't improve we will drop him in Loc Lac City to make his own way back, understood!" the captain answered and at the same time gave him away to get rid of the kid before he got himself or more likely someone else killed.

The lad nodded nervously "what time must I be ready tomorrow" he asked in a voice closest to a squeak, "At 4:30am we want to get going as quickly as possible." The captain answer before turning and asking one of the barmaids for his room key, the barmaid nodded before heading over to a small window in the bar wall were a grey felyne sat, she spoke to the felyne and was given the keys, walking back over she handed him the keys "There you go sir" she answered in a sweet voice, the captain looked quizzically at the two keys, the one said 'Rathalos Suite' and the other 'PHS1' looking back at the smiling barmaid "So where can we find these two rooms?" he asked puzzled, "oh no sir, the Rathalos Suite is for the two of you to share and is at the top of the stairs at the end of the hall, the key with 'phs1' engraved on it, is for the private hot spring that Tsuruko-chan herself booked for you two, the Captain nodded and bid the lady a good night before leading Sgt. Mel to their room.

Arriving at their room the captain opened the door to find a large room with a dark wooden bed in the middle and a navy blue duvet covering it, in the corner near the navy blue curtains were two wooden chairs a blue couch, all surrounding a dark wooden table with flower arrangements on top, next to the bed was two night stands and on the other side were large double wooden doors, most likely the closet, walking further into the room they notice another door leading to the bathroom. While the captain opened the closet to find two large hunter chests, Sgt. Mel slid up behind him and put her hands on his large chest, softly whispering into his ear, "Let's go play around in the hot springs, mmmm" turning the captain saw the impish smile on her face as she swayed her hips while exiting the door.


	7. Preparations and Goodbyes

Chapter 7 Preparations and Goodbyes

It was three thirty in the morning and nothing was stirring in the village, except in a two story house where a large man was attempting to wake up another man, "Come on we need to get ready" the large man spoke as he nudged the blanket covering the sleeping one, in a split second a hand shot out from under the covers and grabbed the large man by the front of his shirt "If you don't go away Kiryu, I'm going to carve you like a bullfango!" came a groggy voice from under the blanket, belonging to one Rekka who was by no means a morning person.

Using his strength Kiryu pulled his shirt from the grip of his brother's hand and proceeded down the stairs in full knowledge that his brother would rise from his bed any second now. Back in the room the tired form of Rekka swung his legs off the bed and rose into a sitting position even though every fibre in his body protested, he placed his head into his palms and rubbed his eyes in a hope of removing the tiredness, once done he stood up and stretched his body to help awaken his muscles. Turning to face his bed he went down on one knee and then reached out towards his bedpost, he retrieved his link chain made from eltalite ore, from the chain hung a wood and metal cross, the wood at the centre of the cross was Yukumo oak and had the word 'GOD' engraved into it in dark red letters, while surrounding the wood was gracium ore which he mined in the tundra region and glows pure white in sunlight.

Rekka held the cross in his hand and against his chest and begun to pray. "Now I start my day of hunt, I pray the Lord my soul to watch, if I die before it's done, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen" standing up Rekka placed the cross around his neck; he then grabbed a sleeveless dark red shirt that was hanging over the bottom of his bed and put it on over his naked torso covering the few scars on his torso, received from some fierce hunts. Walking down the stairs he saw the trap door to the basement already open so he proceeded down the ladder to find his brother busy putting on his Rathalos S mail, his greaves and tasset already in place. Once Rekka's feet touched the floor he turned to his right and headed over to a small table against the wall with two small buckets, one with water and the other empty, Rekka splashed some of the cold water in his face before he picked up a small wooden red toothbrush and then grabbed a small flat stick and scraped some blue paste out of a wooden jar, then he wiped the paste onto the bristles of his brush and proceeded to brush his teeth.

Rekka now stood at the opposite end of the room from his brother, before him was a large chest with the symbol for Yukumo village and the kanji for Narugakuruga on either side of the symbol, on the wall above the chest hung weapons of all types, mainly longswords and under the weapons on either side of the chest were wooden mannequins covered in various helms and chest plates, below each one was a box containing the lower halve of the armour and the vambraces plus matching materials encase of repairs, Rekka walked up to the first armour on his right and bent down to retrieve the greaves of his Ceanataur S armour and pulled them on an tightened the straps, Once the greaves were secured he reached down and grabbed his tasset and strapped it into place, walking towards the wall he retrieved eight throwing knives all of which had their tips soaked in a concoction mixed from the poisons of a Yian Garuga and a Dosufurogi's sac, with all eight knives the poison could weaken a fully grown Tigrex. Rekka placed the knives into special slots on his greaves that Hoki the Blacksmith modified for him.

Once the knives were in place along his right thigh, Rekka grabbed his pre-packed hunting pouch that hung from the wall, the pouch was unusually bigger than the average hunters pouch due to the Gypceros hide sown into the lining for extra protection, inside the pouch was some basics; five mega potions, five power juices, one max potion, five flash bangs and ten sonic bombs plus ten herbal medicines and most importantly eight whetstones. Rekka strapped the pouch to the back of his tasset and adjusted it until he was comfortable, then he picked up his Ninja Blade and slid it in place. Rekka grabbed some black crepe bandages off a small shelf and began to wrap them tightly around his hand from the bottom of his fingers to a few centimetres from his elbow, then carefully he removed his Ceanataur S Mail from the mannequin and put it on, once in place he tightened the straps. Rekka picked up his vambraces from the box and slipped them on.

Rekka now stood almost fully clad in his Ceanataur S Armour, leaving the helm for the moment he walked back to the wall, there he placed his hands on one of his most favourite longswords, its beautiful midnight blue sheath with dark purple lace wrapped around, the masterfully crafted extendable handle and tsuba (Guard), while from the hilt hung a red talon attached to a small chain. Slowly he removed it from the wall and secured it to his back, the last thing Rekka put on before his helm was a red tenugui (bandana) made from Rathalos webbing which helps keep his head cool while wearing the helm. Turning Rekka watch as his brother lifted his Crimson Wall Greatsword with ease and strapped it to his back, "You say your morning prays?" Rekka asked in a serious tone "like I'd forget!" Kiryu answered irritably as he faced Rekka.

Kiryu turned and headed out their basement door which led to the garden, as he and his brother stepped through the door frames the morning air hit them, it was still very cool and crisp and the sun hadn't even started to rise in the morning sky, checking the time to find it a few minutes past four, they walked around the house remembering to lock the door behind them, they were headed to their parents' inn to meet up with the captain and his sergeant.

It was four thirty and most places were still shut, the only exception was the Thundering Jinouga Inn where the staff members were getting ready for the breakfast crowd, at the bar sat Capt. Ibiki and Sgt. Mel along with the rookie hunter, right now they were waiting for the brothers to arrive as well as the rest of the Guild Knights who had taken up residence at the gathering hall for the night. The Captain and sergeant were busy discussing the idea Rekka had brought forward, it was to detour to a small trade village on the border of the Sand Plains and Great Desert, while the town was in a different direction than Loc Lac City, if they got there they could catch a sand ship and arrive at Loc Lac two days earlier plus it saved everyone a walk through the burning furnace known as the Great Desert and any possible Jhen encounters, the only hiccup was the route took them along the edge of the Great Forest, an area known for Narugakuruga attacks.

As they came to a decision the brothers entered through the front doors "Morning captain, sergeant" Rekka and Kiryu announced their arrival, "WOW you guys are actually Greatsword users!" Sgt. Mel exclaimed without thinking, "Longsword! his is a Greatsword" said Rekka with mild irritation at having his fast and beautifully crafted longsword referred to as a slow and hulking Greatsword. "Long time since I've seen a Devil Slicer" Capt Ibiki spoke while admiring the brothers' weapons "True Devil Slicer!" Kiryu started "And mine is the Crimson Wall, ah the monsters me and this blade have brought down," "Also a gift and what's hanging off their hilts?" Sgt. Mel interrupted and instantly wished she hadn't "NO, we gathered the materials and hunted the monsters that make up these blades ourselves and the object hanging from the hilts is a Power Talon made from a Loa-Shan Lung claw, one we helped repel !" Rekka spoke with so much venom that Sgt. Mal had to take a step back, his blood and sweat went into gaining the necessary materials for his equipment, he wasn't some bloody guild member, most of whom received their equipment from the Guild. Who in turn made it from materials gathered through quests completed by hunters.

Before Rekka could say anymore a large hand landed on his shoulder, "Relax grumpy, I know you're not a morning person but still" came the jolly voice of his father which seemed to calm him down quite a bit. Sgt. Mel seemed to forget the elder brother as she now noticed something on the right shoulder of the father, just like his sons he had a tribal tattoo with kanji under it, only difference was that the image was of a Jinouga, deciding to find out what the purpose of the tattoos were, she started to speak "Sorry if I ma..." unfortunately she never got any further "Oh, your troops are standing outside like lost Popos Captain" Kiryu bellowed out drowning out the sergeant. The captain left and returned a few minutes later with his troops in tow, they all found a place to sit and order food while the brothers simply went to eat in the kitchen. As the troops neared the end of their meals and the breakfast crowed had started to fill up the inn, approaching the captain was a haggard looking huntress, when she arrived near the captain's table she spoke "Sorry to intrude, but I'd like to know how I can get my storage box" she asked quietly, "Well, I will have to speak with the chief and see what can be arranged" Capt. Ibiki replied unsure of how he would solve the problem.

Once the captain and his subordinates had finished eating they collected their equipment and headed for the door, behind them were Tatsuo and Tsuruko each carrying a large bag. As they all arrived in front of the Village Chief, they found the brothers standing next to four Felynes who in turn was holding onto a Felyne wagon with two storage chest fastened down, not far from them was four hunters, Sgt. Mel recognized one as Akodo. The sergeant walked towards him waving to catch his attention "Morning" she started "So is this your team?" she jested towards the three hunters next to him, Akodo smiled "Morning Sgt. Mel, yip these are my teammates, well except him" Akodo greeted and explained while pointing at a man in Hermitaur Armour, "His joining us on a routine patrol as a favour to Rekka and since his team is recovering from injures due to a failed quest to slay a Rathalos, but don't say anything" Akodo whispered so only Sgt. Mel could hear him and she nodded, "Yeah so the guy in Battle armour holding the Paladin Lance+ is Sean, the girl cleaning her Sandfall bowgun is Miyo and the guy with the Kut-Ku Jaw Hammer is Fredrick" Akodo announced and each one raised their hand when their name was spoken.

While Sgt. Mel was getting to know Akodo's team, Capt. Ibiki was listening to the chief "So as I have discussed with the brothers, the felynes are going to travel with you to drop off their storage chests and pick up the chests of the hunters you brought here, the team going with is a routine patrol and they are there mainly to protect the felynes on the way back" the lovely elder explained while the captain nodded thankfully, since his earlier problem was resolved for him, the captain bid the Chief farewell and a thank you for all her help, he looked around and saw the brothers speaking to their parents while receiving two large bags.

Kiryu had just received a large bag from his mother and was dying to see inside "So what's inside huh huh?" "Well the chefs made you two special bento boxes; we put in a few bottles of sake and a few bags of rice" Tsuruko explained "Now don't drink all the sake in one night, you hear me?" Tatsuo ordered, "Hai!" was the brothers' answer to the stupid order "Also remember to keep notes; I want to know all about the new monsters you encounter when you get back." "That's Rekka's deal, Otosan" Kiryu sighed as he answered his father, Rekka had heard his father's request and nodded before giving his mother a hug and wishing her well, he then turned to his father and they shook hands, but before he could release his father pulled him into a hug and patted him on the back telling him to be safe and to look out for his brother. Kiryu followed suite and hugged his mother, kissing her on the forehead and then went through the same process as his brother when he shook his father's hand.

As everybody bid farewell and headed towards the gate they started to notice a small crowd forming at the Village gates, as they started walking through the crowed people wished the brothers well and a safe return. Nearing the last of the crowed a little girl appeared in front of the group and the captain recognized her as the girl from yesterday, minus the pot on her head. The little girl ran up to Rekka, who went down on one knee as the little girl stopped in front of him, as she shuffled her feet she held out object wrapped in a brown cloth and Rekka accepted the gift with a small smile and slipped it into his pouch, the little girl stood on her tip toes and whispered something into Rekka's ears, once she stood down Rekka ruffled her hair and stood, but instead of walking to the gate he walked towards his chest, the felynes pulling the wagon stop and wait for Rekka to finish retrieving a largish package. Rekka returned to where the girl was standing, "Here you go Ayako-chan, I was going to give it to you on your birthday, but I don't know if I'll be back by then!" Rekka gentle explained to the girl who seemed slightly sad at the thought, "Go on, open it" Rekka encouraged the girl, Ayako smiled brightly before quickly unwrapping the cloth around the present.

Ayako felt like the happiest girl in the world, starring in wonder at the presents Rekka had given her, the first being a wooden helm which looked just like a Narga S helm and the best of all were the two wooden swords beautiful carved in the image of real Twin Dagger dual swords, Akyako instantly put the helm on and leaped at Rekka and hugged him as tight as she could, thanking him profusely with a wooden sword in each hand. Only a few steps away stood Sgt. Mel in full amazement at the sight before her as she never would have pegged the cold, monotone youth as someone that would be good with kids "Whoa never would have thought he had a heart" Sgt. Mel spoke softly to herself, "Yeah my brother has a soft spot when it comes to kids" was the reply from Kiryu causing the sergeant to cringe slightly and blush at having been heard.

The group had left the village gates and where now making their way down the path towards the convoy, they were making good time since there weren't any injured parties to worry about; the captain was in front of the group and was lost in thought, wondering how the convoy had fared over the past two nights. The group carried on walking mostly in silence only the hunters at the back would talk every now again. In the middle of the group Rekka and Kiryu walked just behind the rookie, "What's your name?" Kiryu asked since this hunter would be tagging along with them and most likely be fighting with them in the future, the hunter looked nervous "My name is Dan" he spoke with no sense of conviction at all, meanwhile Rekka had noticed how the rookie seemed to shake slightly every time something made a noise.

Dan was not in the best of places, no matter how hard he tried to control his fears. Every time something moved or made a noise his body shook and images of his friends getting injured played through his head and now that the light had started to fade and the vegetation around them seem to become darker his fears became worse. All of sudden a loud animalistic cry could be heard nearby, without thinking Dan grabbed his Serpent Bite SNS with his left hand and spun to his right, Rekka took action while in mid-step by adjusting his right foot's destination to step more right while leaning back at the same time, He watched as the blade sailed past his helm only centimetres away from his eyes before it came to a dead stop via the way of Kiryu's right hand grabbing Dan's left. Kiryu had watch the whole event take place in a matter of seconds and was not pleased as this rookie was more dangerous to the group than a wild beast, so he applied pressure to the man's hand causing him to drop his weapon.

Rekka was not pleased, but calmed himself before he reacted so he pulled off his helm and walked up to the rookie and spoke calmly "Listen to me and listen carefully, I understand your still shook up with what happen to your teammates, but you better pull it together because if this is how you're going to react when a Aptonoth makes a noise, then you're going to end up killing someone. You Understand?" the rookie nodded quickly realizing he was in the wrong and what could have happened if the two near him were as inexperienced as him. Kiryu let go of his hand and continued on his way, Rekka put his helm back on and followed his brother, the rest of the group remained silent and seemed to walk a distance behind the rookie, giving Dan the feeling that they were worried he might do something stupid again.


	8. Fury All Around

Chapter 8: Fury All Around

The moon was glowing silvery white and lit up the night sky, while allowing enough light for the travelling group to see where they were headed with minimal help from a few lit torches. It was nearing nine o'clock according to the position of the moon in the starry sky and the group was nearing the convoys' position, only 100 meters away when all of a sudden the captain called a halt. Sgt. Mel couldn't understand why the captain stopped as she could see a few fires in the distance so she decided to inquire "Sir, sorry to speak out of line, but why have we stopped, sir?" she did not receive a answer only the captain pointing to area a few feet away from their current position.

The sergeant followed his finger, what she saw in the moonlight was signs of a battle, there was blood splatter everywhere, larger claw marks in the earth and blood plus traces of scorched earth and numerous scales scattered about the place. Before she could say anything the two brothers walked past her towards the battle scene with their helms by their sides, they knelt at different spots, checking the impressions in the soft earth and the scales. The captain had also walked to the area, but stopped just behind the brothers "What happened?" Capt. Ibiki, his eyes never leaving his surroundings "Yian Kut-Ku, it was killed and dragged towards the camp site only a few hours ago." Rekka answered in full confidence of his findings, "Then why is it so quiet?" Sgt Mel questioned, "So as not to attract more unwanted attention" Capt. Ibiki explained.

The captain returned to the group and acquired a torch from one of the privates, he turned and headed back to the area where the battle happened and waved the torch about to signal to the convoy of the groups' arrival. In some bush not too far away a pair of eyes watched the group and smiled, the unknown eyes turned their gaze onto the hidden figure behind him "Go inform them that the group is here, the figure nodded before disappearing into the darkness of the vegetation and headed to a large tent in the clearing having to manoeuvre around various objects and people before he got to his destination, stopping outside the tent and knocking on the wooden post at the entrance and then waited "Come in!" came a deep voice from inside, the figure slipped into the tent to see the one in charge sitting in the dim light of a candle, "Sir the group has arrived" the figure announced and in a flash the sitting figure was on his feet "Well then private, go inform Lt. Colt and tell him to line up the troops!" was the orders of Lt. Morgan, the private saluted and rushed off to do as he was ordered and the lieutenant was making haste to pack away his Blangonga rum and straighten himself out, once he was in order he exited the tent to find Lt. Colt lining up the troops and so he headed towards the entrance of the clearing to greet the returning group.

Arriving at the edge of the clearing, lt. Morgan finally saw the captain and the group consisting of a few new members, walking towards him at a brisk pace. Saluting the captain as he neared his position "Sir, welcome back, we were getting worried." Lt. Morgan expressed his concern, since he expected the captain back earlier in the day, "We weren't away that long lieutenant, now please report" Capt. Ibiki ordered in hopes of finding out about the battle. The lieutenant straightened out and answered "Well all is calm, we arrived and setup camp not long after you left and all went rather smoothly up until early this evening when a Yian Kut-ku attack Pvt. Riley while he was scouting not far from camp" "Yes we noticed the damage on the way here, how is Riley?" the captain interrupted out of concern for one of his men, "He'll be fine sir just a few broken ribs, caused by a tail swipe, luckily the hunters where nearby and went to town on the creature and dragged it to over there" Lt. Morgan reported as he pointed to the spot where a hacked up form of a kut-ku was laying not far from the hunters who were sitting by their own fire pit.

The captain looked over to where the Yian Kut-ku lay; the poor beast looked like it had been in a fight with an enraged Rathian, shaking his head as he began to speak "That's good to hear Lieutenant, now what I want is for someone to show the Felynes to the wagon carting the hunters chests to perform a swap and return the hunters their chest and that of their deceased comrade", "Yes Sir, but if I may inquire as to why there's only two chests and six hunters?" Lt. Morgan asked, "Because the four hunters at the back are a Patrol unit from Yukumo and are here to protect the Felynes" Capt. Ibiki explain and then turned around "You Rookie, I want you to go with the Felynes to show them which chest they need to take!" the captain ordered while looking straight at Dan who in turn just nodded and then relocated to a spot next to the felyne wagon while Lt. Morgan arranged for Pvt. Mitchell to escort the felynes to the correct wagon.

As the private led Dan and the Felynes to one of the wagons on the far side of camp, Capt. Ibiki introduced Lt. Morgan to the brothers "Well Lieutenant, I'm sure you've realized by now that these two are the hunters from Aoashira Rampage, so I'd like you to meet Kurosawa Rekka" the captain point to Rekka who bowed his head slightly, "And his younger brother Kiryu" the statement caused Lt. Morgan to raise an eyebrow in suspicion, but left it at that. The Captain then turned to Lt. Morgan with an extremely serious look on his face "So where did you hide the rum you've been drink! Did you even leave any to share with the rest of us?" the captain spoke, "Uh" was the only sound out of Lt. Morgan's mouth "Busted" Kiryu chimed in before walking off after his brother who was heading towards the hunters sitting around the pit, the captain just put his hand on Lt. Morgan's shoulder and chuckled "As soon as the patrol has left I'm going to want a drink." Lt. Morgan just smiled and nodded at his old friend.

As the brothers approached the group by the fire pit they saw a grey haired man lean over to another in Khezu armour and said something which caused him to chuckle, as the two came to a stop a few feet from the group the grey haired man clad in Gravios armour stood up and spoke "Welcome, I'm Mike" the man started in a weird, sarcastic high pitched type voice, obviously not his normal tone "And this here is Martin" he continued and pointed to the man with light brown hair and clad in Khezu armour, "This here is Ken" Mike pointed to a hunter in Hermitaur armour with dark blonde hair "and Lastly this is David" this time pointing to scraggly looking man in Cephalos armour. Mike then put his hands together "And you two must be the new monster door mats!" he bellowed and his team laughed, "Strange the armour we are wearing is rarer than yours and the ones who slay the monster that used the last team as a door mat was us, stranger yet though was why didn't you slay it oh great hunters?" Rekka said with actually little care in the world of what these congas thought of him.

The words that Rekka spoke had quite an effect on the hunters, first they felt stupid which then turned to angry at having being insulted and as Rekka excepted, it was the large hunter that was first to protest "We could have slain that beast before it knew what happened if we were at the rear and seriously doubt your armour is that special!" Kiryu just shook his head, his brother had already turned and started walking away as soon as the guy opened his mouth to speak, "Yeah ok man obviously your bitter bug sized brain has never heard of S, U, X and Z armour ranks so you can keep telling yourself that until the day you become wyvern grass" Kiryu said sarcastically and received a death glare from the hunter, not that it affected him while guy might be large he was shorter than Rekka and only slightly bigger in built and since he had little to no brain power it would hardly be a challenge, so Kiryu followed his brothers lead and just walked away from the fuming group.

Rekka was headed towards the patrol team, he had heard the large conga grunting a lot of dung, but couldn't be bothered to actually listen as he walked away. As he neared the patrol team his brother walked up beside him "Baka" Kiryu stated, "That isn't hard to figure" Rekka responded and before the two could say anymore a voice cut in "Hey guys, were going to be leaving in the next few seconds, so yeah uh good luck and i want to hear about the cool monsters you guys fight!" Akodo put out his hand after he finished speaking and in turn the brothers shook his hand and the very next second a blur enveloped the brothers in a dual hug, "Come back soon, the village won't be the same without you guys and thanks again for getting Hoshi to help me with my bowgun" said Miyo as she released them with a little smile on her face, "Hey where's my hug?" Akodo asked playfully and got a cold stare in return before Miyo turned and smiled, "Oh and get yourselves some girlfriends" before turning back to Akodo with a cold stare in turn making Akodo look nervously at the floor and shuffle his feet.

While Akodo was getting frozen by Miyo's stare, Sean walked around them and bowed his head low as a sign of goodbye, he never was one for words and the brothers knew this well so they just bowed back. Fredrick was the last to step forward "Good luck and thanks again from me and my team!" he spoke solemnly, "Don't worry about it, you would have done the same" Rekka stated, "for now just concentrate on getting your team back in shape and learn from the mistakes, your all great hunters you just need to trust each other more" Rekka finished and then shook the man's hand, Kiryu did the same. The felynes had just set foot next to the patrol team and Kiryu walked over to white felyne in charge and bent down "I got something for you and your team" Kiryu told her as he pulled a small leather bag from his pouch and handed it to her "Nyaaa Felvine nyaaa" the felyne spoke without even opening the bag "Your nose is as good as ever Kana" Kiryu laughed and the felyne turned to her friends and handed each a felvine leaf to chew on. With everything ready the group set out, heading in the direction of their home, as they walked away they waved goodbye and each hunter had a torch in their hand and their stamina back to full after drinking a power juice to help keep them going, "They could have stayed the night and left at first light." The captain spoke up, "No they're a patrol team and the first day you may only rest for small periods and cover as much ground as possible, so they'll stop at one of the check points we passed and meet up with another team who will guide the felynes home at first light" Rekka informed the Captain knowing firsthand about patrol quests.

The Captain just nodded at Rekka and turned and walked towards his troops, the ones that went with him were already lined up and waiting with the rest, Capt. Ibiki stop in front of his troops, "Men there will be a change in plan, it has come to my attention that there is a quicker way to Loc Lac City" the captain announced before going on to explain the revised route, which seemed to lift the troops spirits a bit, most of whom would rather face some monster in a shaded forest than have to walk for a few days in the blistering furnace of desert only to be swallowed by some hidden sand monster bursting forth from under their feet. The captain dismissed them and the troops dispersed to talk amongst themselves asking the ones that left with the captain, about Yukumo, the captain himself headed for a fire pit near the largest tent in the camp, there he found the brothers talking amongst each other, so he sat opposite them and soon he was joined by is officers.

The captain coughed to get the brothers attention, "I thought you would have sat by the other hunters?" Capt. Ibiki enquired, "Yeah we didn't think it would look good on your reports if you lost another four hunters and have to explain how a supposed dead Kut-ku resurrected itself in the middle of the night and took revenge on them in their sleep before succumbing to deaths grip, again." Rekka spoke as if discussing what was for breakfast "I wouldn't mind writing that report in the least" Lt. Morgan announced "Yes, but if you change it to say that they were killed by the Kut-Ku during its initial attack due to their arrogance, then you wouldn't have to worry about any inquires" Capt. Ibiki informed Lt. Morgan as he smacked him jokingly on the back and causing the group to laugh out loud, "Now where's that rum Mr. Morgan?" the captain asked while trying hard to keep his serious face in place, Lt. Morgan shot up from the log he was sitting on and hurriedly walked into the tent, pulled two bottles of one of his most favourite rums, Moga Black Rum, from a small chest and walk out handing the one to the captain who pulled the cork out and took a big gulp before handing it over to Lt. Colt, Lt. Morgan did the same, but handed his one over to Kiryu and so they went about taking turns with the rum and talking about all manner of things for an hour or so before turning in for the night like the rest of the camp excluding those on watch duty.

The night past without out problems and morning crept up quickly on the sleepy camp site and as the light of the hidden sun started push back the fading hours of the nights darkness a horn was blown, it was the morning wakeup call announcing to the troops they had less than thirty minutes to get up, get dressed and line up for inspection before eating breakfast that was all ready being prepped since half past three by the felynes. The owner of the horn blew it once again not realizing that in the tent just behind him a certain person was wondering how he'd feel with that horn shoved where the sun don't shine and sideways of all things. Kiryu could see the menacing look on Rekka's face as he arose with the second blowing the horn 'I really hope for the horn blowers sake that he doesn't blow that horn again or my Otōto is going to make sure he'll never try to blow one again' Kiryu thought and thankfully the man left, maybe he could feel the waves of irritation coming off his brother, oh well he though and started to go through the whole rigmarole of suiting up just like his brother was starting to do.

The brothers took their time getting ready and when they finally exited their tent the captain had already finished inspection and the felynes were running around handing plates filled with food to the soldiers, the two walked over to the same fire pit as last time and sat down on a log and not five seconds later two Felynes, one black and the other yellow appeared in front of the brothers with plates containing some bullfango bacon, some Kirin cheese and scrambled wyvern egg, "Thank you" the brothers said at almost the same time, "Nyaa Hunters that have manners, nyaaa makes a nice change from those brutes nyyaa" the yellow felyne spoke as it pointed over to the fools from last night who seemed to be causing a fuse about the food, Rekka just shook his head and begun to eat while the felynes scampered off to do whatever still needed to be done.

After breakfast the group set out to their next destination, they line up the wagons and head back in the direction they come for about two miles before turning onto a well used path. The brothers stayed at the back along with Dan who they stayed a step or two behind, they spoke a bit to Pvt. Jacob who had to lie on the roof of the wagon to avoid getting hit by most of the branches, they also spoke with Lt. Morgan when he walked around the back of the rear wagon to check on the troops on the opposite side. Almost four days had past and so far not much had happened, Dan seemed to have calmed down a bit and so far most monsters seemed to ignore them, well except those annoying Vespoids, though they seemed to keep Kiryu and Pvt. Jacob entertained as they made bets with each other about who killed the most in a certain time or who could kill them without turning them to pieces, Rekka watched and corrected them when they tallied wrong.

It was late morning and the convoy was still walking down the same winding path when the next moment an explosion went off just a meter away from the rear wagon, the force from the blast sent Pvt. Jacob flying from his roof top vantage point, to land in some dense bush just far enough away that the toppling wagon missed crushing his feet by a few millimetres, inside the sleeping men from last night's watch landed in a heap, shouting out in pain as some landed in an awkward manner. Rekka and Kiryu spread out and freed their blades from the confines of its sheath; turning to their left they saw a Rathalos standing with its wings spread out at the edge of a clearing nearly twenty meters away, "Prepare yourselves!" Rekka shouted, on the other side of the over turned wagon Lt. Morgan told the troops to stay back and let the hunters deal with the beast before he climb up onto the wagon and sprinted before jumping off and landing close to the brothers and Dan, who seemed to be standing directly in line with the Rathalos.

The Rathalos spied the easiest target to hit and without any further though it gave one might flap of its wings, propelling itself backwards as it conjured the necessary powder to the back of its mouth from the sac in its throat, the powder started to react with the creatures saliva to create a ball of fire, the Rathalos spat the ball of flames from its mouth. In the clearing the brothers' watch as the flaming ball flew in their general direction more precisely, straight at Dan and there in lay the problem the brothers soon realized that Dan was frozen, not even raising his shield to provide some form of protection, Kiryu was the first to react as he was closer to Dan and his brother knew this. The fireball was almost on top of the rookie when pain racked his right shoulder as a strong force sent him sailing to the earth just out of the fireballs' path. Unfortunately the one who barged Dan out of the way was not so lucky, Kiryu was unable to get his Greatsword into a defensive position as not a second after sending Dan to kiss dirt the fireball collided with his left side, the power of the impact sent him flying and at the same time causing him to release his hold on his weapon.

Rekka watched the event unfold right before his eyes and not far from him, Lt. Morgan had seen the same event play out, he then adjusted his view to the eldest brother to see what he would do, what he saw he was not sure of, but he could have sworn that he had seen Rekka's eyes glow red behind the visor of his helm. Rekka had forgotten about the Rathalos, rage and adrenaline now coursed through his veins and all he could think of was making sure his brother was ok. Rekka charged as his brain mapped out a route to his brother automatically and his body just followed, as he rushed at the first objective he notice something was nearly on him out of the corner of his eye and without looking he placed his hands against his chest and placed the back of the blade he was holding against his shoulder while at the same time he stretched his right leg out in front of him and bent his left leg and leaned back while twisting his upper body to the right, in doing so he land in the dirt face down and rolled over twice as he felt the heat from the fireball as it glided over him, obviously the monster had fired off another ball of flames just after it touched ground. Rekka pushed himself up with his knuckles the instant the fireball had past him, not releasing his weapon as he almost sprang to his feet and charged in the direction he was headed before while at the same time sheathing his blade.

Near the toppled wagon Lt. Morgan had watched in awe as Rekka avoided the ball of fire with amazing reflexes and shot back to his feet, not long after that Rekka had reached the rookie who was on one knee staring at the downed Kiryu with eyes frozen in shock and horror, the rookie had absolutely no time to react as Rekka grabbed him by the top and bottom of the back of his armour and literally hurled him with all his might towards a outcrop of boulders nearly six meters away not far from where Rekka was standing before he started his sprint. The rookie rocketed through the air and crashed to the unforgiving earth just a meter short of the boulders and rolled the rest of the distance with the only words travelling through his mind were the ones spoke with such venom that a Kut-ku would have cowered in fear, the words Rekka had shouted at him when he chucked him like a piece of dung, the words 'JUST STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY' repeated over and over putting the young man near tears.

Soon after Rekka had sent the Rookie flying he was back in action, taking a glance at the Rathalos who was busy taunting and sneering at them while smoke rose out of its mouth, Rekka took this as his chance and sprinted, only slowing down a little as bent and gripped his brother's weapon before speeding towards his brother, who was already in a sitting position and reaching into his pouch, Rekka reached his brother and stabbed the large Greatsword into the ground just in front of Kiryu to give him some protection in case the beast attacked again. Kiryu chugged down a mega juice and while he wasn't as badly injured as he could've been had he not been wearing Rathalos armour, that didn't mean it didn't sting like ten vespoid had attacked his left side over and over without any protection, "How you doing here lazing around on your ass?" Rekka asked sarcastically, but his brother could hear the concern in his voice "Well other than the slight numbness in my left side, I'm doing well and I think we should relax here and maybe let the rookie handle the monster." Kiryu answered his brother with a voice dripping with sarcasm.

Across the way the Rathalos had been watching the intruders getting up, it would have attacked but right now it need to rest due to recent circumstances so instead it watched before lowering its head to take a bite from its earlier prey's carcass just on to the right of its claws, hoping the blue beasts meat would help it to recuperate a bit more. Kiryu had just gotten back to his feet when he noticed the monster dip his head and there was something else. Kiryu instantly nudged his brother and pointed at the creatures head "Think it could be the same one?" Kiryu asked as Rekka followed his brother's finger to notice the object of his brother's question "Well let's find out, shall we" Rekka answered while picking up a fist sixed rock and then hurling it at the beast, the rock hit the Rathalos just above it's right eye in turn causing the monster to rear back, raise its head to the sky before lowering its head and roaring as loudly as possible, but the monster was too far from the brothers for the scream to be of any concern, but the brothers had seen what they wanted to when it raised its head and exposed its throat.

Rekka turned towards his brother at the same time noticing Lt. Morgan slowly side stepping towards them with his shield raised and his Scissor Cannon Gunlance at the ready "How good a shot are you with that gunlance of yours?" Rekka called out in a rushed voice to Lt. Morgan who was now half way to them, Lt. Morgan attention was drawn away from the Rathalos by the strange question in his opinion, "Darn bloody good, why?" Morgan questioned back. As soon as Lt. Morgan was a few feet away Rekka answered "Simple, at some point that Rathalos is going to charge and when that happens, I'll give you a signal and what I want is for you to fire a round off into its right knee, Kiryu ..." Rekka evaded to his left as a fireball headed in their direction, Kiryu and Morgan evaded to the right "I know what to do Bro" Kiryu told his brother having done similar stunts in the past, Rekka just nodded as he lined himself up with the boulders behind the cowering Dan, while Lt. Morgan stepped in line with the beast so as to take aim, Kiryu stood on his right with his Crimson Wall tightly in his grip.

The Rathalos watched as the foul creatures avoided its fireball again and so with a slight step back it blazed forward with all the speed it could muster in hopes of trampling the annoying creatures to death. On the opposite side Lt. Morgan watched as the beast charged, His attention fully focused on the right knee and his finger secured on the trigger waiting for the signal, as the Rathalos neared the boulders, Morgan heard the words 'Fire' and pulled on his trigger. The Rathalos was charging at the intruders that had arrived, but something went wrong as it was mid stride and its left leg bent close to its body, and at that very second there was a flash and booming noise which came from one of the strange creature's arm and the very next second pain shoot through its right leg causing the leg to be pushed backwards and in turn the Rathalos lost all footing and went face first into the dirty and due to its momentum it slide forward.

Kiryu watched as the Rathalos skid along the vegetation covering the forest floor scattering the plants and dirt into the air, as it neared the boulders Kiryu started his charge towards the downed beast, his Crimson Wall held facing the opposite directing. As the Rathalos came to a grinding halt only a few feet from the boulders it started to slowly lift its head, but Kiryu was already in front of it and with all the strength he could he swung the blade over his head from behind his back and brought it down on the centre of the Rathalos head and sending it crashing back into the ground, when the blade met flesh Lt. Morgan could have sworn he heard the sound of the Rathalos' skull cracking. Rekka who had stepped further back before the beast had begun its charge, followed after his brother a few seconds later, heading straight for the boulders to the left of the Rathalos.

Rekka sprinted dead ahead, drawing his True Devil Slicer from its sheath, as he reached the boulders he took two large steps up the boulders side, his first step being right next to Dan's head causing the rookie to almost wet himself. With his second step he placed his hands high above his head as he twirled his blade around so the tip was facing forward and then launched himself from the boulder using his momentum to carry him forward, arching his back as he glide through the air, Kiryu rolling to his right just after he finished delivering his own bone crushing blow. The Rathalos just reopened its eyes in time to see the tips of the blue creature's feet that would bring its end.

The tip of the True Devil Slicer pierced through the damaged skull with utmost easy, sparks of thunder flying off it as it was twisted towards the left by its owner as it sliced through its newest victim and in a second it pierced the earth and was buried into the soil, its owner relinquishing his hold on it just after half the blade was impaled through beast and earth so as not to snap the weapon when his momentum carried him further and sent him into a rolled. Rekka ended up rolling onto the Rathalos wing, when he stood he drew an imaginary cross over his heart with his index finger while in his mind he asked for forgiveness from ending the monsters life. Kiryu walked up to the unfortunate creature and checked for any signs of life, once done he placed his right foot on the monsters head and took hold of Rekka's blade and slowly eased it out of the Rathalos' head.

Morgan stayed on guard, it all seemed to easy and he knew from firsthand knowledge that a Rathalos wouldn't go down so easily, but the beast did not rise again even once the blade was pulled from the beasts head , his thoughts were voiced by another just behind him "How's it possible?" were the stunned words out of the captain's mouth as he stared at the form of the beast, he had watched along with the other hunters from the time the gunlance went off till this point and still could not believe the ease with which the Rathalos met it's end, "We'll answer that when we make camp, right now I suggest we get moving before something else decides to make us lunch" Rekka answered as his brother handed him his True Devil Slicer, with a flick of Rekka's wrist most of the blood sprang from the blade landing on the damaged earth, as he sheathed his blade he walked around the boulders and grabbed the rookie by the front of his armour "You, you better get your carving knife and go carve as much of that Rathalos as possible, then turn it into armour so you will always remember what your actions could have caused today if my brother's armour was of a weaker material!" Rekka told Dan with anger rising off him in waves, as soon as he released the rookie, Dan scrambled away to do as he was told.


	9. The Nest in Sand

Chapter 9: The Nest in Sand

Twenty Five minutes after the Rathalos attack did the troops finally to return the overturned wagon to an upright position and replace the right back wheel which snapped in two due to the fact that it had sunk slightly into the soft earth as the wagon wheeled on down the path. The night watch that had been asleep in the wagon at the time, were all ok except for the odd bruise here and there, the captain gave the order to move out once everything was back in order and the troops back in position. The brothers had Lt. Morgan place the rookie in the rear wagon as well, so that they didn't have to worry about losing their lives to save some wannabe rookie.

It's wasn't long after the Rathalos encounter that the landscape started to change from dense, lush green vegetation to sparse dull green plants and grass, before finally turning into a dull beige world that seemed like an almost lifeless plain made up of broad leaf trees, shrubs, rocky ground and cliffs as well as the odd mud pool here and there. As the scenery changed so too did the air, going from humid and warm to dry an uncomfortable hot. The occupants of the convoy had all instantly gone for their cold drinks the moment they left the cooler areas of the Sandy Plains, well except one occupant that being Dan who somehow had forgotten to pack any form of cooling item, on top of that nobody felt like sharing with him most saying that since he was inside the heat wouldn't be that bad, the brothers said it would be a good lesson to always be prepared.

The convoy had been dragging on for nearly three hours in the desert sun when the scout came rushing back and stopping ten meters from the front wagon, waiting for it to reach the spot where he was standing. As the wagon started to roll past him he climbed up onto the roof where the captain was watching the convoy and surroundings from behind his binoculars, "Sir, The town is 15 minutes away over the final dune, Sir!" the scout reported, "That's good news Pvt. Riley, please go head of the convoy and inform them of our arrival" Capt. Ibiki order the private, who in turn saluted and then climbed down from wagon and raced back over the dune he came from. A few minutes after Riley had left the convoy final conquered the last dune to see their destination; it was quiet a large town with a few large structures on its northern side.

As they neared the town, Pvt. Riley arrived huffing and puffing, "Sir, the guards say we need to hurry as a sandstorm is coming in from the great desert and their locking down the town as we speak" he explained without even taking a breath, the captain nodded "Go explain the situation to Lt. Morgan and Colt and tell them to pick up the pace soldier!" he ordered before turning to the guild knight steering the wagon "See if you can get these poor Aptonoth to move faster" the captain ordered hoping the poor creatures could manage, while they were great in greener areas, they were not built for deserts, the driver saluted and cracked the reins in turn the poor Aptonoth picked up a bit more speed, near the back Lt. Morgan had just received the news and was about to relay it to the brothers "Its seems we will picking up speed, due to a sandstorm approaching!" he told the brothers "We figured we would be" Kiryu answered causing a puzzled look to spread over Morgan's face, "Altaroth" was the only word out of Rekka's mouth as he pointed in the distance, turning to see where he was pointing, Lt. Morgan noticed large groups of strange, small, multi colour bugs busy scurrying around behind some large ones heading into sand made pillars stick out from the desert floor, but before the lieutenant could reply a Barroth charged down a pillar sending sand and altaroths flying in different directions, it the snacked on a few before charging off, heading away from the Great Desert, most likely trying to get away from the imminent sandstorm.

Once the convoy arrived at the large re-enforced gates he saw man wrapped in cloth from head to toe, carrying an iron lance and motioning for the convoy to flow him, above him was a large sign with the name of the town written out 'The Old Traders Nest'. The captain ordered his troops to follow the man and to make haste as the winds were starting to pick up, as the convoy rushed through the town barely able to take notice of their surroundings, all they could see were people running about, strapping down the stalls and check it was shut tight, parents rushing their children through the crowds and the only sounds were that of the winds picking up and a large dong sound from an alarm bell above a gate at the opposite end of town. The averaged sized clothed man guided them into a large wooden structure, most likely a warehouse as there seemed to be crates of all sizes packed along the walls.

By the time the wagons were all into the warehouse, the wind outside was howling furiously. The man that they had followed had announced himself as 'Archie' and he was one of the town's guards; he also explained that the inn that was roughly fifty meters away had been informed of their arrival. The problem now was the sandstorm which would make it near impossible to see where they would be headed. The solution came in the form of a very long rope that had been lying on a crate not far the entrance, Archie headed out into the raging winds of sand with the rope in hand and it took a couple of minutes before he return, having tied the rope to one of the entrance poles of the inn. The captain signalled his knights to follow behind Lt. Colt who stood ready behind to head out into the speeding winds.

As the last person crossed the threshold of the inn, the last person being Capt. Ibiki, by the entrance stood Archie holding a set of keys "Follow me captain, I'll show you and your men to the rooms" Archie explained before heading up the stairs and heading down the corridor, as Archie unlocked a room the captain would select to knights depending on gender to occupy the room and ordered to rest up for an hour before gathering in the dining hall, once everybody was in the rooms they cleaned up as best as they could, trying to get rid of all the sand that seem to have slipped inside their armour. While some choose to nap some found other ways to relax.

An hour had passed and most of the members of the convoy had congregated in the dining hall where the captain had explain that they were off duty and could relax for the night, the brothers only came down about an half an hour afterwards dressed in similar clothes on as the time they first met the captain. The brothers sat down at the same table as the captain, lieutenants and the sergeant, as soon as their butts touched wood a voice drifted into their ears "Rekka and Kiryu, what brings you here and have you joined the guild?" a short, plump man said as he placed his hands on the brothers shoulders, the brothers didn't even bother turning around "Ah firstly no and you're just the man we wanted to see, hey Rekka?" Kiryu explained while Rekka just nodded, "Is that so, hey" the short man answered as he placed his chubby hand on the back of his bald head, "And what is it that you want from me?" he continued.

The man took up a seat next to Kiryu and order some local ale from a passing waitress, "Well Sir" the captain started, "Joshua" the man announced his name, "Joshua, well we were hoping you could provide our convoy with transport to Loc Lac City and if so how much would you charge?" the captain explain, the balding man leaning back in the chair a bit he brought his right hand up to his face to play with his long orange moustache that curled up at the ends and seemed to be more pronounced due to the fact that the man had large, dark green eyes and was wearing a dark suit. After think and nodding to himself for a few seconds, he smiled at the captain "Well captain, I've got an idea that will suit us both, are you interested?" Joshua said throwing the out the bait hoping the captain would accept.

The captain thought a bit about what the man might have to offer, "What does the idea entail?" Capt. Ibiki asked curiously "Well you see I have a shipment of gold and other ores that was meant to leave this afternoon, but due to the sandstorm it was rescheduled to leave tomorrow at noon, but the problem is that lately we've been having problems with the Great Sands group, they're a bunch of bandits that have been attacking and looting our sand vessels for the past few weeks, we've sent for help from the guild, but until that arrives we have to rely on a few hunters who strangely arrived a few days after the first attack and they charge quiet a lot to protect our ships" Joshua paused to take a sip of his ale and then continued "So what I propose is that we use three vessels splitting your convoy among them and then flying the guild flags to help deter the bandits and if that doesn't work, well then you need to defend the ships and in return you don't have to pay me anything and I don't have to pay a ridiculous protection fee, so what's your answer" the man finally explained all and smiled waiting for the captain's reply, he didn't have to wait long "You have yourself a deal there sir" Capt. Ibiki answered, this was not an opportunity to turn down, plus they were guild knights and removing bandits was one of their roles, so in a sense they just be doing their duty.

After the captain's answer the weird moustache man ordered another round on him, to celebrate the deal, a voice piped up as soon as the drinks arrived "Rekka, I almost forgot. Please explain how you were able to slay the Rathalos so easily?" Lt. Morgan asked, peaking the interest of those around him "Well firstly we slain the Rathalos together, as to how well let me ask you this, did you see the damage on the monsters head or maybe the knives stuck in its throat?" Rekka asked, Lt. Morgan thought back to the events of the day before responding with slight unsurity in his voice "Well I do remember you removing knives from the monster's neck while we were righting the wagon and now that you mention it, I do recall catching a glimpse of what looked like blood and large gashes on its head when it was taunting us!" "So what your saying is that someone had already injured the Rathalos?" the captain voiced what most of the people at the table were thinking.

Rekka nodded to the captain, "Do you remember the guy in Hermitaur Armour from the patrol team?" he asked, "Yes, I think his name was uh, Fredrick" Sgt. Mel answered hoping she remembered correctly "That's correct, from what we were told by the teams felyne comrade, the group where hunting a Emerald Congalala and in the process of slaying after the monster after a long battle when a Rathalos or should I say the now dead Rathalos intervened, guessing it saw an easy meal so it spat one of its fireballs which sent the Congalala tumbling, the problem was that the one team member was about land the final blow when the dead Congalala tumbled over her, badly injuring the huntress" Rekka paused to wet his throat with some of the local ale, while at the same time leaving most of the group on the edge of their seats, "aahh So unfortunately the rest of the team flew into a rage, causing all manner of team work to go out the window, so they basically charged the beast and end up getting in each other's way which favoured the Rathalos, anyway Kiryu and i were patrolling nearby when we heard a few explosions and decided to go investigate, what we found was the felyne tending to the huntress and two of her teammates trying to get back to their feet while a few meters away Fredrick was busy abusing the monsters' head" Rekka paused again the drink some ale, before continuing "before we could jump in and help the Rathalos spun around and swatted Fredrick away with its large tail, Kiryu waited for it to turn back before he flung a flash bomb, while decide to throw a couple of the knives to help slow the monster down, we decided that getting the team got of the area was the best course of action, so we grabbed the downed huntress and hobbled away with the rest of the group in tow, the felyne went to get help" Rekka finish explaining the events.

The group sat and digested the information they had received, but something didn't add up for Lt. Colt "When did this all take place and surely the wounds should have closed by now?" he queried "Well it happened about two days before we slain the Aoashira, so that would be eight days ago, and before you say anything, let me explain." Rekka started and then pulled out one of his throwing knives with a purple tinge on the blade and he laid it on the table, "This is a similar throwing knife to the ones I pulled from the Rathalos, the blades have been soaked in a special concoction of my own making and could kill a man in a few minutes tops, but a Rathalos has a slight immunity to poison unlike the Rathian, so what I'm thinking is that since the knives were still lodged in its throat, that the poison carried on poisoning the creature even though it slept or ate to replenish its health and as we saw kept its wounds from closing as quick as it normally would, which might explain why the Rathalos seemed to be in rage when it attacked us" Rekka answered the group with the conclusions he drew from the observations he made.

Satisfied with explanation the group continue to talk about different topics while enjoy various meals and drinks, by the time they turned in for the night most troops had already turned in for the night while the other hunters were still up and being a nuisance to the waitresses, outside the inn the sandstorm was still going strong, howling with all its might, to the point where it seemed like it was trying to slowly strip away at the re-enforced walls of the town with the sand in its tight grasp, only relenting at its task near the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning when Lt. Colt stepped out of the inn, he looked around at the town not having seen much of it the day before due to the sandstorm and rushing to store the wagons. The town wasn't much to look at, being dull and lacking any really form of style or atmosphere, with a few plain houses scattered about near the southern wall, where people were shovelling away sand from in front of the doors. The centre of the town was made up of a maze of stalls, where at this point in time merchants were busy cleaning out the sand and laying out their wares for all to see. The captain had given the knights some down time for the morning and they were told to report to the pier at noon, so many knights could be seen wandering around the stalls as they opened. As the lieutenant looked around he spotted Kiryu near the one warehouse lugging around some crates, but he couldn't see Rekka anywhere so he assumed he was wandering around town where as he knew Mike and his team where being a nuisance towards the waitress inside the inn.

Colt had decided to go wandering around town himself, while Kiryu had just finished loading some crates on one of the sand vessels and had decided to call it a day, as he left the pier he turned his gaze upward to where he knew his brother would be, there in one of the towns watch towers Rekka was sitting on the railing, leaning against the one of the posts, staring out across the plains for a few seconds before turning back to the book in front of him and sketching whatever had caught his interest. Kiryu went on his way letting his brother be, he headed into the inn only to leave twenty minutes later with a foul look sketched across his face, then walked off to go explore the market.

At midday the sun was glaring down on the inhabitants of the Sandy Plains from its spot right high in the cloudless sky. At the same point in time the members of the convoy had gathered at the pier and had split up, a small group and three wagons went with Lt. Colt to the front vessel, while a smaller group and the wagon carrying the Ballista went with Lt. Morgan to the centre vessel containing most of the ore. The remaining knights and Sgt. Mel were sent to the rear vessel and awaited the captain, who was on the pier with the Kurosawa brothers, "Ok you two will join Lt. Morgan on the centre vessel" Capt. Ibiki explained, "Hey, where are we suppose to go?" Mike ordered while trying to glaring threatening at Kiryu with a swelling black eye "Well we thought we would drag you and your team behind each of the sand vessels without armour, of course two of you at the rear so in case we get attacked we could just cut one of you free and hope the beast sees you as a viable snack, don't you think that sounds like fun?" Rekka explain in a serious voice while his brother pretended to check a pile of rope on the pier a few feet away, Mike and his team seemed slightly shocked and so were unable to reply even as the brothers headed for their assigned vessel.

The Captain hadn't said anything for the past few seconds due to the fact that he was deep in thought, imagining the hunters before him, screaming and shouting while sliding across the burning hot desert sand while a school of Delex were trying to relieve the hunters of their flesh. A soft nudge in the captain's side brought the man out of his thoughts, looking to the one who nudged him; he found the lovely eyes of Sgt. Mel looking at him with her, in his opinion amazing baby blue eyes which almost sent the captain back into dream land, if it weren't for her turning her head he might still be keeping the fuming hunters waiting, "Relax, you and your team will be stationed on the first vessel" Capt. Ibiki explained before heading for the rear vessel with Sgt. Mel in tow, stealing glances at his rear.

Near the bow of the first vessel, one of the privates was reporting to Lt. Colt, who at this point was busy constructing his Moga style bowgun, "Sir, it seems the captain has placed the hunters on our vessel" "which hunters?" Lt. Colt asked, hoping it was the brothers, "Mike and his team, Sir" the private said as he watched Lt. Colt slide the Rathling Gun+ Frame in place on the Rathling stock, "Darn! Place them at the stern of the vessel. That way if they give us problems we could just say they didn't have enough balance and fell over" Lt. Colt said as he retrieved his Aquamatic "Needler" barrel to a attach it to his bowgun. Finished building his bowgun, Lt. Morgan loaded it with a few Craig S rounds and aimed at various spots in the desert to adjust the scope, when someone shouted "Chief Mate Marcus, Hapurubokka, 400 meters off the portside, Sir" the sailor in the crow's nest pointed in the monsters direction, turning his scope in the direction the sailor pointed, Lt. Colt could see a Rhenoplos running towards the ship for dear life as a large bulge in the sand was chasing after it.

The Rhenoplos was fleeing for its life as the large sand leviathan swan through the sand behind it, before the horned creature could make it half way to the pier area, the sand monster burst forth while twisting its head side ways to allow for a better bite and grip. As the leviathan clamped its decaying meat filled razor sharp teeth around the abdomen of desert herbivore, the Rhenoplos roared out in pain before starting its helpless struggle to pull its lower half from the powerful jaws of the Hapurubokka. Not far away sailors, knights and hunters a like watched as the age old role of predator and prey played out in front of them as the Hapurubokka started to slowly drag the Rhenoplos down to its final resting place under the fiery sands of the unforgiving desert.

Standing on the deck of the middle vessel, one of the newly recruited Guild knights stared in horror at the site before them, they had been fortunate not to have been nearby to witness the slaying of the Kut-ku and Rathalos or even the dead corpses of the hunters, so this was the first act of death the private had seen on the journey and in his whole life for that fact, "Poor thing" the Private said to no one in particular "That's the way the world works in the wild, your either the prey or the predator, survival of the fittest and it's no different to what a hunter does when he gathers food for the village" Rekka explained from next to the private hoping he might understand "Yeah, but you guys would have given it a quick death" the private tried countering , but the desperation in his voice told Rekka that the private was just hopeful, "We try, but there are times when another monster interferes and the prey is only badly injured and when you track it down, you that it bled to death" Rekka explained knowing that lying would not help the young man at all, the young private just hung his head as he finally came to realize this world was sometimes a very cruel place.


	10. Loc Lac City

Chapter 10: Loc Lac City

In the heart of the Great burning desert lay the grand and bustling city of Loc Lac, it also contained one of the largest guild organisations in the land and so was always packed with hunters. Loc Lac City was also known for its great Jhen Mohran festival which occurs every few years allowing hunters over a certain rank to join a mass hunt to slay a Jhen Mohran, but most years end with the dragon beast evading deaths clutches and some badly injured hunters.

The docks in Loc Lac were constantly busy as sand vessels docked and departed, today was no different even as the three large sand vessels containing guild knights, hunters and some very valuable ores dock at the section mark for larger vessels. In seconds after the large planks had touched the docks, Guild knights were marching down, some very glad to be off the vessels and finally over their sand sea sickness, others just glad for the change of scenery, the trip through the Great Desert was uneventful, not even the blasted sand bandits decided to make an appearance. The only thing you saw was sand, sand and more sand with occasional beast appearing and then disappearing among the dunes.

The Guild Knights were lined up near the main entry point to the city, by the two Lieutenants and the wagons had been steered to designated warehouse. Captain Ibiki had left the vessel he had been occupying when he came face to face or rather chest to face with the short and plump form of one Duke Mark von Hergenston and his two large guards in Jaggi Armour. The man was a member of the Guild Council and the same member that was in charge of the Guild inventory and these were the reasons why Capt. Ibiki had no idea why the man would be in Loc Lac when he was stationed in Schrades' capital, Liber City where most of the materials from quests were kept. He eyed the man as he waved to him "Captain Ibiki, how nice to see you once again, I come bearing news." The man said with a sickeningly sweet voice that had the good captain instantly on edge, he had never liked the man and never trusted his intentions every time he was called before the council.

Not far from the captain, Sgt. Mel stood waiting, she had seen the council member approach and knew immediately that something was wrong, but still she wait just out of earshot from the two as they seem to discuss matters that seem to be angering the captain, it wasn't until she heard the captain shout "WHAT!" that she moved from her spot to see what the matter was, but all she got was the council members words of "That's just how it is captain, these things happen and don't worry I'm sure you and your men will succeed, now I must bid you a farewell and hope to see you when you return." The man then turned and walk back towards Loc Lac with his body guards in tow.

The captain was not pleased; he had been in such a good mood from when he got to Yukumo, right up until that stupid little prick opened his mouth, he was sure there was something fishy with the orders the man had given him, but there was nothing he could do as sending a messenger to the Guild Head Council member would take too long and by the time the message returned he would very likely be on at Jumbo village, Unfortunately he'd just have to make the best of the situation before him. The captain had been so deep in thought that he didn't even realize how he had walked past his lovely Sgt. Mel and ended up in front of his troops, only the intentional cough of Lt. Morgan brought him out of his musings, "Alright troops, you are to report to the Guild hall to check into your rooms once that is done you are dismissed until 1800 hours when you are to report to the guild briefing room, if you require anything from your personal chests, you are to retrieve it now as the next time you can access it is when we leave Loc Lac, is this understood" the Captain ordered while still trying to shaking the thought of earlier out his head, there was a chorus of "Sir, Yes sir" before the troops dispersed to carry out their orders.

As the last of the troops had disappeared and the Lieutenants with them, Capt. Ibiki turned to Sgt. Mel and smiled at her "So what did council member Mark say?" she asked curious as to what had caused the captains anger, "I will tell you once we are at the guild hall, in the mean time have you seen the Kurosawa brothers?" Capt. Ibiki explained while looking around. Sgt. Mel nodded her head as she explained seeing them heading into the city, "Please could you go inform them of the meeting and the meet up with me at the guild, I will go and inform the other bunch of congas before they go running amuck." The large man said before heading towards Mike and his team.

It didn't take Sgt. Mel long to find the brothers, it seems they had stopped and near an entrance to an alleyway and was in the process of talk to a little blonde haired boy dressed in rags, no older than eight years old and looked like he hadn't seen a bath in months, behind the boy she could see little girls no older than six, peeking out from behind the boy. The little girl had the same hair colour as the boy and the biggest blue eyes she'd ever seen on a kid. As she neared the little group the brothers were on the move again with the little street kids in tow and with the crowd becoming denser she was having a hard time catching up to them, let alone keeping up with the group that seemed to be able to cut a path through the browsing hunters and villagers going about their daily lives.

Meanwhile in a different s section of Loc Lac a different family was not getting along, "I can't, not go, I already agreed." A lovely young lady no older than 21 told her mother, who was by no means happy "What about how this affects me, did you even think about that before agreed to go running off into the wild?" the older lady accused, causing the beautiful young lady to became downcast at being accused of being selfish "Fine, I will go speak with Dr. Vanessa about taking me off the list" the young girl relented as her mother walked away in a huff as the young woman turned and headed out the front door to clear her head and get over how selfish her mother had been.

In the streets the dejected young girl unknowingly passed Sgt. Mel who was now catching up to the brothers' due to the thinning of the crowd, the brothers' had come to a stop in front of a moderate size wooden house where Rekka was busy conversing with and elderly lady, "Kiryu, what's going? Why have you got these little kids with you?" Sgt Mel enquired while coming to a standstill on Kiryu's left side, "Hey Sgt. Mel, did you follow us? Oh well, we came across these two unfortunate orphans, Ethan and Mia here and decide we would give them a hand." Kiryu explain as if it was the most natural thing in the world for people to just help others out, "And the old lady?" she pushed further. Kiryu just smiled "the old lady is Miss Madeleen, an old friend of my Dad. She used to be a good huntress, but retired and now runs this orphanage." Kiryu explained and cleared up the reason for why the brothers had brought the kids here.

Once Rekka had finished his talk with Madeleen, he turned and walked back over to the little kids with Madeleen right behind him, he knelt down in front of the two young ones "Ok guys, this nice lady here is Miss Madeleen and she runs this nice place here, she tells me there are a few other kids around your age playing in the back, plus she has some new clothes for you to change into." Rekka explained with a gentle smile on his face, "Will she teach me to hunter, just like you" was the cheerful voice of the little Ethan with his sister nodding her head behind him furiously, "Even better than him" Madeleen announced getting a cheer from the boy "well I can't wait to go on a hunt with you and here to help start you on your journey" Rekka spoke as he pulled a strange red charm hanging from a chain out his hunters pouch an placed it around the boys neck "Wow, what is it?" Ethan's sister asked as she stared at the charm, "it's called a power charm, it's made from a strong monster and will make you stronger so you fighter better" Madeleen explain even though she was amazed at how Rekka just gave a eight year old boy a rare piece of equipment without batting an eye.

As the group stared at the charm, Kiryu placed his hand on little Mia's shoulder. As the girl turned towards him and he spoke cheerfully "All hunters need a good partner and who better than a sibling hey" as he slowly placed a chain around her neck with an orange coloured charm, "Wow, what does that one do?" little Ethan asked this time, "Its a armour charm and it will make your body harder so you won't get hurt that easily." Madeleen explained about the new charm, truly amazed at the brothers' generosity, their parents definitely raised them well. With that all said goodbye and the brothers and Sgt. Mel left while a brother and sister made a promise to each other to become the best hunting partners there ever were.

As the three walked through the crowds, it was Rekka that started off the conversation "So Sergeant, why were you following us?" "Ah, oh the captain sent me to inform you that you need to be at the guild hall at 1800 hours" she answered in a rush to explain her actions, "We will be there, but first we need to stop by a supply shop" Kiryu announced as the brothers separated from Sgt. Mel and disappeared in to the crowd once again and leaving her to find her own way to the Guild and so with a sigh Sgt. Mel badly navigated her way through the crowds in the direction she hoped the guild hall would be.

Later that afternoon found the guild hall packed with members from convoy, guild hall members and some civilians. Most were siting while Capt. Ibiki stood where all could see him "Quiet down, firstly I need to announce some changes to the convoy's route, we have been ordered by Councillor Duke Mark to head straight to Jumbo Village via Kokoto, it seems that there has been an increase in the Monoblos population near Fort Flame Dune and due to this we will not be meeting up with another platoon" the aging captain explained as he surveyed his troops and he could easily see the worry in the eyes of his troops.

The captain decided to proceed with his speech so as to let the troops go about enjoying the rest of their time in Loc Lac, "Now, please welcome Dr. Dracenstein and his to two assistants" the captain introduced while pointing to a small, old Wyverian man wearing a dark brown leather tasset over a dull green coat and dull brown pants, smoking from his long pipe while stroking his white beard. Next to the man stood a black haired, scrawny youth around nineteen or so with a simple white long sleeve shirt and brown trousers, holding onto a notepad and surveying everyone through his large glasses, the second assistant looked around twenty six with her red hair and in pig tails, she was a short lady wearing a long dull brown skirt and a beige top and at this point was starring at her feet.

Captain Ibiki waited a few moments before continuing "We will also be meeting the Healer unit that I requested, tomorrow at 1600 hours at which time we will go over the group arrangements. Until then try to enjoy your stay in Loc Lac and don't cause me any problems" the captain sternly explain while eyeing Mike and his group of congas, though they seemed not to have noticed the pointed glare. Most of the troops just lingered in the guild hall, get drinks and talking amongst themselves. Others head out to go explorer the city, Kiryu had other ideas, "Hey Rekka lets go on quest" Kiryu smiled broadly at this brother, "What are short" Rekka eyed his brother, there was only one reason Rekka could think of as to why his brother would want to go on a quest, and that was that he was short on materials, "Uh well i need nitroshrooms and flashbugs" Kiryu answered, Rekka just stood and headed for the counter, after a few minutes he returned and handed his brother a quest slip, "Retrieve 10 monster livers, so you going to hunt Delex while I gather" Kiryu asked, his brother just nodded before heading to their room to retrieve his blade and helm.


	11. Strange Meetings

Chapter 11: Strange Meetings

In a dark and dank back alley not far from the guild hall and an hour after the captain had finish talking to his troops, two figures could be found, drape in black coats, their faces hidden from sight as they conversed about the well being of the convoy, "So, will all be ready by the time we board the ship in Jumbo?" the taller of the figures questioned in a deep voice, "Of course it will, now how was the trip so far?" the short figure replied with a sneer while he seemed to be looking around nervously from under his coat, trying to make sure no one would see them. The taller figure seemed to get irritable at the thought of the question "We had a short stroke of luck when a Aoashira removed some of the useless hunters from your little assassins' list, but unfortunately our good captain decided to resolve that problem by getting himself some high ranked hunters from Yukumo" "That will be problematic" the short man responded, "Relax, your assassin should be able to injure them enough before we sail through leviathans gorge" the taller figure almost chuckled.

The shorter figure was not so sure "but, what if he fails?" the short figure question with a fair amount of fear in his voice, "Look if something goes wrong, then we just make sure the convoy never returns from the New Land" the tall figure replied confidently "Fine, I'm counting on you, just remember how much is at stake!" the short cloaked figure ordered as he pointed his short pudgy index finger at the taller man before turning on his heel and disappearing further into the alley. The taller figure turned and headed the other way while he grunted at the idea that he would fail, he was going to be able to retire after this little deal was complete, little did he know that at this very moment the same small figure he had just spoken to, was planning the man's' demise just like he had done to countless before him, if one were to ask the short figure why, he'd simple say it was to get rid of loose ends.

Around the same time, two figures emerged from a guild camp site somewhere in the desert, "Ok we meet back here when we're done" Kiryu spoke while his brother chugged down a hot drink to shake off the excruciating cold, nodding once he was done. Kiryu followed his brothers example before heading out into the sub zero temperatures of the once fiery desert, leaving his brother standing in the same spot on the small plateau, staring out across the almost deathly silent and luminous dunes, thanks to desert moon and only the sound of the chilling breeze as it rustled by shaking the sparse, almost dead looking vegetation.

Kneeling down on the still warm plateau, Rekka produced a map from his pouch and unrolled it in front of him, consulting it to find the more likely area the Delex would reside. After a few seconds of contemplation he stood up and returned the map to its previous spot before placing his helm on his head, before taking a brisk walk in a north westerly direction, avoiding jaggi and jaggai as he went along, no need to kill the dumb creatures unless they attacked first. A half a mile later found Rekka standing at the edge of a mostly flat plain with a few mini dunes scattered about the place, but the center of Rekka's attention was off to his right where a now half eaten carcass of a Apceros, surrounded by large bluish fins jutting out from the sand around it, every once in a while the owners of one of the fins would burst from the sand and scavenge a bite from the recently departed beast and by the looks of things the owner of the kill had left, very likely a Great Jaggi.

The experienced hunter crouched down and slowly retrieve a well known weakness of his would be prey, the sonic bomb. Making his way over to the feasting scavengers of the desert, he manoeuvred around so that he was at the rear of the school as they sprang forth from the sand to get at the leftovers. Once in throwing distance, he pulled back his right arm before hurling the bomb at the object of the schools attention, the next second a piercing screech dominated the ears of all in a ten metre radius as the bomb detonated on impact with the flesh of the dead beast.

As soon as the bomb had detonated, Rekka was off like a Narugakuruga after a Kelbi, pulling three of his specially coated throwing knives from their holster along his hip, as the Delex exploded from the sand like a mini geyser field and then flopped around on the cold sand, in quick succession Rekka threw the three knives with deadly precision, honed from years of practice. Three Delex now lay dead with knives protruding from their eyes as Rekka released his prefer weapon from its restraints before it claimed the three lives of the remaining Delex with deadly accuracy by slicing through scaly flesh as its owner swung it around like a master swords man with no wasted movements, before being cleaned with a black cloth and returned to the confines of its sheath to once again await its next taste of flesh and blood.

Turning around the hunter gazed at his six victims, three of them now headless, before dropping to a knee and asking for forgiveness in their demise, as he pulled his carving knife from its place on his left hip and stood once again. Walking over to his first three victims, he removed his knives before going about carving their livers, fins and scales. Next he moved onto his last three kills, as he followed a similar process as that of the first three, placing the carvings into a separate sac. With four livers left the hunter head further into the open plain and with his view unhindered as he scanned for the last of his prey.

There was no need to search as not that far off he could see another school of Delex making their way through the sand towards his position, deciding for a little bit of a challenge Rekka readied his True Devil Slicer and charge straight at the oncoming land fish only slowing to position himself in a spot just in front of where the creatures would break the sand, and just as he predicted the Delex burst forth just a few feet from his spot where he was now kneeling, with his blade pointing skyward and his left arm behind the blade to brace it as an unfortunate Delex jump straight into the sharp edge, literally splitting itself in half as blood sprayed onto the hunter's armour, spinning to his right on his knees in the loose sand, Rekka swung his blade in a wide arc catching two other Delex, one died as the blade sliced through its chest cavity as it filled with sand to propel at Rekka's back, while the other now sported a long cut in its largest fin.

Mere milliseconds after his blade cut through the large fin, a piercing screech filled the air, forcing him to cover his ears though his eyes easily found the source as just meters from him, sticking out of the sand was a large one sided blade almost fully encased in scales with spines jutting out the back, belonging to his only brother. Shaking his head he watched his brother finishing off the last two creatures with his Kodachi, before ripping his blade from the skull of the Delex still under the sand, "Well lets carve these buggers and go" Kiryu said with a smile, while his brother gave him the coldest glare he could muster, which would send chills down most men's spines, but Kiryu had grown up with him and the effects had long since warn off. Once the carving was done the brother's were left with only ten monster livers, unfortunately the liver of the Delex that Rekka had split in two was of no use as the fluids that are contained inside now moisten the icy sand.

The next morning one could the beautiful young lady, downcast sitting in a Baggi hide covered chair in front of a large oak desk, behind the desk sat her good friend and mentor Dr. Vanessa, a well known doctor in the guild who had personally requested that her and her assistants be chosen for the expedition to the new land, "So your mother is trying to guilt you out of coming along!" the doctor stated more than questioned "Yes" the girl answered sadly, as her mentor stood up and strolled around the desk while running her slim hands through her light brown hair, "Listen to me, your my best student and this expedition will do wonders for your career, but most importantly it will get you out of your mother's clutches!" "But" the girl tried to defend the situation, "But nothing" the doctor snapped slightly before sighing and leaning back against her desk "Just think about what I've said and then after the guild meeting tonight you can give me your answer, OK?" Dr. Vanessa asked trying to get her young charge to hopefully change her mind.

Standing the Doctor and the young girl exited her office to find a female Guild Knight standing in the waiting area "Can we help?" asked Dr. Vanessa in a friendly voice, "Yes, I am Sgt. Mel and I have been sent by Captain Ibiki to come and collected the extra supplies to be stored in the wagons" Sgt. Mel spoke as she straightened out, "Oh good, my assistant here will show you to the supply room, do you need someone to help you carry?" the kind doctor replied "No Ma'am, I have some troops waiting outside to help" the sergeant explained. The doctor nodded as she turned and headed back into her office to finish off the last of her reports before the convoy left in two days time, leaving the young girl to smile and introduce herself to the sergeant before showing her to the storeroom.

Later as the sun neared the point where it would descend behind the dunes, the bar at the guild hall was starting to pick up as it neared the time for the captain to address his troops once again. The brothers entered the hall after speaking with Pvt. Jacob and Lt. Colt outside, near the entrance, "Kiryu, you go grab us a table and I'll get the drinks" Rekka purposed as he head for the bar leaving Kiryu to nod and wonder off in search for an open table or one not partly occupied by idiots. As Rekka reached the bar he quickly slipped into the first open gap between the many bodies all vying for the few barmaids' attention.

Rekka leaned over the counter to see if he could catch the attention of any of the passing barmaids, but instead his attention was captured by the beautiful firm behind covered by a black knee length skirt of a girl bending over, trying to retrieve something from a cupboard behind the counter, unfortunately his view was quickly blocked by a barmaid asking for his order, so he quickly ordered two Moga Rums all the while trying to see around the barmaid, but by the time the barmaid had removed herself from his view it was too late and the lovely behind was gone. So he stepped away from the counter slightly saddened, once he received his drinks, only to come to dead stop in front of an angel of 5,7ft with a fair complexion and long brown hair that flowed down to the small of her back, his brain went numb at the sight of her amazing, big pale green eyes with flecks of brown and her face a picture of beauty in his mind, "And who the hell are you" she asked sternly with her angelic voice that seemed to caress his ears, which in turned caused some functionality to return Rekka's brain.

Though hard Rekka's brain was able to produce an answer for the young goddess before him, "Uuuhh Rekka" "My name is Yukiko" the girl replied sweetly, Rekka shook himself out of his stupor somewhat as it was a little hard to with the girls' gentle, angelic smile and definitely with the way her black top hugged her well toned body, "lovely to meet you, so what are you here for?" Rekka asked dumbly, "Well I might be part of the medical team that joining the expedition" she answered kindly.

Before the two could talk any further the captain called everyone to their seats, "OK quiet down, I would like to introduce Dr. Vanessa and her team" the captain said as the people in question lined up behind him, "They will be as you all know, travelling with us and their assistance is greatly appreciated" the Captain continued as he nodded to the doctor who nodded a thanks in reply. "Now tomorrow night you will all be divided into groups and will" "I want to be with the pretty girl" was the statement that brought the captain to a stop and descended the guild into silence as all stared at Rekka who at this point realized that his mouth and body had reacted before his brain could intervene.

By now most had followed the direction of the young lad's finger to find a lovely young girl attempting the impossible task of submerging into the ground without the help of a shovel while trying to do her best to impersonate a curled up Rangurotora while competing to see who was redder, unbeknownst to the young girl, her mentor chuckled at the girl's predicament and had even seen the exchange between the two earlier before the captain interrupted, 'hopefully this young lad will give Yukiko reason enough to stay with the expedition' Dr. Vanessa thought to herself, while enjoying the wide eyed look on her favourite students face, "Well we will see what we can do, now as I was saying" the captain continued "The medical team will be placed into the groups and it will be the responsibility of that group to protect the healer, though from what I can see some are already willing to do just that" the captain jested, while Rekka just pretended not to notice, however he did notice the conga brained hunter "Ken" giving him the evil eye.

Soon after the Captain waved off the convoy's members and slowly they dispersed and formed smaller groups. Kiryu just smacked his brother on the back, "Well I see you got some important matters to take care of so I'll see you later" and before Rekka could reply, Kiryu had vanished. Turning around he found Yukiko standing in front of him "You want to take a walk with me? I need to meet my mother at a restaurant on the other side of town" she asked with her beautiful voice, "Sure" Rekka replied as turned to stand next to her as they headed for the door.

As the two walked in near silence down a slightly busy path, it was Yukiko that broke the silence "So you're a high ranking hunter from Yukumo Village" she enquired, "How do you know that?" Rekka asked, he was sure she hadn't spoken to anyone since the captain interrupted them at the guild, "Sgt. Mel told me as we passed you and your brother chatting to some of the knights outside the guild hall" she explained as if it should be the most obvious thing ever. Rekka was now confused, "So why as me who i am at the bar?" "Well why did you so blatantly stare at my butt?" Yukiko countered, Rekka had enough sense to look embarrassed and was unable to come back with a reply.

Before Rekka could come up with a response, he was interrupted "Ok, you stay here, I'll be back now" Yukiko said in a slightly commanding tone while pointing at a spot on the ground, "What do I look like, a well trained feline?" Rekka questioned, irate at being ordered around, "Ah Good Kitty, I'll get you a treat if you behave!" she joked as she walked into a nearby shop, leaving a slightly confused and shocked Rekka gaping at her back.

Moments later the beautiful girl emerged from the shop with a small leather pouch fastened to her left wrist by its strings, "Come on lets go" the angelic Yukiko said as she walked past Rekka, letting him catch up to her. Deciding to forget about the incident in front of the shop the two engaged in small talk about their lives and family while they passed stalls in the process of closing for the night and before they knew it they were standing just meters from the restaurant where Yukiko's mother awaited.

Yukiko slowly turned to her new friend, really wishing they could just walk around and talk, but alas it was not to be as she would never hear the end of it from her mother, were she to not pitch up for the meal, "Thanks for the chat it was fun!" she express as she smiled at the young man next to her, "Yeah it was great, thanks i enjoyed that a lot" Rekka replied in earnest, really wish they could just go sit and talk further. Yukiko broke the momentary silence, "Do you mind if i give you hug goodbye" She asked shyly.

Rekka looked perplexed for a split second before answering "Sure, you didn't have to ask" and then proceeded to open his arms and engulf Yukiko in a soft and gentle hug an she in turn wrapped her slender arms around his muscular torso, in just a second the world melted away as the two enjoyed the amazing sensation of just holding one another, 'I wonder how she would react if i kissed her, maybe i should wait, don't want to push my luck and the all goes to hell' Rekka thought to himself while fully unaware that the stunning beauty in his arms was wondering if the handsome man holding her would kiss or maybe she should kiss him, but scratched that idea, just encase he only though of them as friends or that she was easy. Yukiko decided to push her thoughts to the back of her mind and enjoy the hug before it ended. Seconds later the two slowly separated, both feeling cold and lonely, neither one understood why, but smiled at the other and went their separate ways.


End file.
